Wilkie and Lac Win Billiards Gold in Sterling

Wilkie and Lac Win Billiards Gold in Sterling
Tiger Pool Tour / Sterling, VA
by Skip Maloney
Shaun Wilkie held off a strong surge by Brandon Shuff in the finals but finished undefeated in the Tiger Pool Tour stop the weekend of July 6-7. The Bob Stocks Memorial, hosted by the First Break Café in Sterling, VA, drew 48 entrants to the $1,500-added open tournament and 12 women to the $350-added ladies’ event, won by My-Hanh Lac.
Earlier in the day, Wilkie and Shuff had faced down Matt Krah and Shane Jackson among the winners’ side final four to advance. The hot seat match-up that followed had Wilkie prevailing over Shuff 9-6.
On the one-loss side, Matt Clatterbuck and Danny Green advanced to face each other in the quarterfinals, where Clatterbuck dropped Green into fourth place with a 7-5 victory and then turned to face Shuff in the semifinals. Shuff, looking to at least duplicate his second-place finish on the tour’s last stop, ousted Clatterbuck to get his chance.
Wilkie jumped out to a commanding 8-3 lead in the race-to-11 finals before Shuff fought back to tie it. After trading the next two racks, Wilkie reached the hill first. Shuff had his chances in last game, but Wilkie left him with a jump shot that he missed. With ball in hand, Wilkie closed it out at 11-9 to take first place.
In the ladies’ event, My-Hanh Lac chalked up her second straight Tiger Tour win with a commanding 9-2 victory over Rachel Eliazar in the finals. The final four on the winners’ side of Sunday’s event ended up as the top four finishers.
Pauline Mattes and Rachael Eliazar dropped Sueyen Rhee and Ji Hyun Park out of contention before facing each other in the quarterfinals. Eliazar advanced to face Kim Smith in the semifinals on the heels of a hill-hill victory and went on to challenge Lac. In a race to 9, Lac wasted little time in repeating her victory on the tour’s last stop, defeating Eliazar 9-2 to capture the first-place prize.
Open Results:
1st Shaun Wilkie
2nd Brandon Shuff
3rd Matt Clatterbuck
4th Danny Green
5th Matt Krah
Shane Jackson
7th Manny Chau
Shawn Toni
9th Pooky Rasmeloungon
Eric Moore
Paul Adolini
Steve Lillis

Ladies’ Results:
1st My-Hanh Lac
2nd Rachel Eliazar
3rd Kim Smith
4th Pauline Mattes