Birthday Billiard Win for Morrison
Great Southern Billiard Tour / Inman, SC
by Lea Andrews
Tony Morrison had more to be thankful for on the weekend after Thanksgiving than leftover turkey and stuffing—a win on the Great Southern Billiard Tour is the perfect birthday gift for any player, and that’s exactly what Morrison got. Morrison, who celebrated his birthday November 29, joined 54 other players at G-Jay’s in Inman, SC, for the $1,500-added A/B amateur event November 28-29.
A-ranked Morrison got into the hot seat match following a shutout win over Jeff Baumgarner, and it was there that Morrison was dealt his only loss. Having just won 7-6 over AA-ranked Brian White, who was racing to 10, Justin Price sent Morrison west hill-hill 7-8.
On the left side of the bracket, Josh Newman got by Mike Basha 9-4 to face Zack Robbins, who’d won hill-hill 7-6 over Chase Smith. Holding Robbins to three games, Newman moved on to Baumgarner. Meanwhile, Eddie Adams edged out fellow A-player Harold McAbee 9-8 to face Brian Davis, who’d gotten past Ken Hitchcock 7-3. After breezing past Davis 9-1, Adams met up with a challenge: White. White advanced 10-5 into the quarterfinals against Baumgarner, who’d reached his goal of seven games while Newman was one game shy of his goal of 9. A strong 7-5 victory pitted Baumgarner against Morrison once again, but unfortunately for Baumgarner, the result was nearly the same as the earlier shutout. Managing to hit the string just once in the semifinal match, Baumgarner landed in third while Morrison got his rematch with Price.
Morrison pushed the second set of the true double-elimination final match by winning the first set hill-hill 9-6. Accustomed to the pressures of higher-level competition, seasoned player Morrison handled the stress of the final set a bit better than the less-experienced Price, who made it to the hill but couldn’t mark up the final game—Morrison clinched his birthday victory hill-hill 9-6.
Tony Morrison had more to be thankful for on the weekend after Thanksgiving than leftover turkey and stuffing—a win on the Great Southern Billiard Tour is the perfect birthday gift for any player, and that’s exactly what Morrison got.
Results:
1st Tony Morrison $1,000
2nd Justin Price $500
3rd Jeff Baumgarner $300
4th Brian White $150
5th Eddie Adams $100
Josh Newman
7th Brian Davis $60
Zack Robbins
9th Harold McAbee $30
Ken Hitchcock
Chase Smith
Mike Basha