Ussery Continues Domination o­n Fury Tour

By Steve Jennings

If there was any doubt that B.J. Ussery was ready to move up beyond the amateur level, his performance o­n the Fury Carolina Tour this year has surely erased it.  The tour made o­ne of its final stops of the year at Gametime/Riptide o­n Saturday, November 6 in Greenville, SC, and Ussery again dominated the field.

Ussery's route to the final match was a little unusual, as he had to go through the west side, but the race-to-5 format in the o­ne-loss bracket was definitely an advantage.  Ussery did start out o­n the right track by shutting out Stick Kytle 7-0 before falling to Brian Davis 7-4 in the second round.

He then made quick work of his opponents, winning four straight matches to get to the semifinals.  He blew through his opponents easily, knocking out Bobby Strandberg 5-1, John Carson 5-0, Johnny Griffin 5-1, and took care of Davis 5-2 in the rematch. 

Meanwhile, in the winners' bracket, Robert Ray was cruising through o­n his way to the finals.  He ousted Dale Pittman 7-2, Brian Bagwell 7-3, Davis 7-4, and Jeff Abernathy 7-4 to earn his spot in the finals.  Abernathy took his game to the west side to face Ussery in the semifinals for a shot at Ray in the finals. 

In the final match, Ussery jumped out to a 1-0 lead, but Ray came back and played a safety forcing Ussery to use his jump cue.  He missed the shot, and Ray took advantage to run out to tie the match at 1-all.  Ussery took the next two games, but Ray came streaking back to take a 4-3 lead.  Ussery then started to run the table, as he took five straight games for an 8-4 lead.  In the final game, Ussery broke and sent the wing ball straight into the corner o­n the snap, and he proceeded to run out the rack for the 9-4-tournament victory.

Results:

1st B.J. Ussery $385

2nd Robert Ray $135

3rd Jeff Abernathy $155

4th Brian Davis $85