SOUTH POINT

champs Kyle King & Dominic Tadiello

        Kyle King moved within four titles of his ultimate goal, while Dominic Tadiello impressed everyone with his first win, in exciting JBT Mojave Conference action at South Point.

        The scratch division used our exciting Mulligan format, and combined with a wide open house shot, led to some astronomical scores, where it took a 223 average just to make the top half.  Kyle King squeezed his way into the #5 seed for the finals, and then got red-hot as he worked his way up.  He began with a 268-157 win over Jimmy Hefley.  He then followed with a 201-196 win against Mark Myers, taking care of all the two-handed California bowlers in attendance.  King then topped Dallas Leong 209-190 in the semifinals to advance to yet another title match.

        Top seed Kris George had owned this tournament, taking over in the semifinals and not looking back.  King, however, was looking for instant redemption from the week before at Morongo, where he climbed the ladder but threw a bad shot for the win in the title game.  As it turned out, he was able to indeed erase that memory as George struggled a bit and King took advantage for a 234-206 win.  It's the 38th title of his extraordinary JBT career, now four wins behind Steven Black's 42.

        It's extremely rare that both winners at the same event climb all four matches of the stepladder finals, but it happened here as Dominic Tadiello also pulled off the feat- but, with all due respect to Kyle, in far more dramatic fashion, as his first three matches all came down to the final shot, and were decided by a TOTAL of four pins!

        In the first match, Tyler Ottenschot needed a strike to tie, and unfortunately only got eight, giving Tadiello a 221-219 win.  Brandon Duffy then found himself in the exact same situation, but he got a 9-count, giving Tadiello the 202-201 win.    Believe it or not, in match three Randi Speiler needed to strike on the fill ball to tie her match as well, but she could only get 9, and Mr. Houdini came away with a 182-181 win to move on to the title match.

        Though Tadiello was doing some good bowling himself, it would have been hard to blame the eight-year old for being exhausted mentally and physically against top seed Donovan Koff.  Koff, the old man in this match at age eleven, had completely dominated the tournament, leading all eight qualifying rounds.  However, it turned out that Tadiello was just getting started, and he ended up winning the title match scratch, and 247-183 with handicap added in, for his first JBT victory.

        Thanks as always to the crew at South Point for a great job as always hosting our event.  Over $1,500 in scholarships were awarded to bowlers of all ages and averages- you need to be in on this fun!  Check out our schedule page and come see us soon!