NUGGET BOWL

champs Jakob Butturff & Anthony Dang

        Jakob Butturff and Anthony Dang helped themselves greatly in their quests for the all-conference Bowler of the Year awards with victories in exciting JBT Mojave Conference 'survivor' action at Pahrump's Nugget Bowl.

        The scratch division story started with Wesley Low, fresh off back to back JBT wins in California, coming out on absolute fire, blasting 230-300-290 for an 820 opening set, one of the highest in JBT history.  He easily qualified first, with fellow southpaw Jakob Butturff earning  the other bye for qualifying second.

        Once on the lanes for the survivor rounds, they picked up where they left off, with Wesley firing 274 (and another left, Derek Acuff, right behind with 268) to eliminate Dallas Leong, while Jakob's 245 and Eric Hatchett's 219 were enough to eliminate Jacob Camacho (197).   Now combined to one pair, Hatchett bowed out in fourth, and in the next game the snakebit Acuff settled for third, to set up an anticipated title match.

        After Cortez Schenck caught Butturff in all-conference points with a recent hot streak, Jakob may have felt he had a statement to make, and boy did he ever, defeating Low 268-239 in a terrific performance by both bowlers.  The win is the 18th of Butturff's JBT career, moving him up to sole possesion of 8th place on the all-time list.

         Dang qualified first after five games, and though the survivor format can be tough on top seeds, much like Low he cruised through early rounds.  Eventually 18 survivors were reduced to four, and in the semifinal games Dang got by David Galvan 218-192, while Dee Handley, a current Pahrump bowler, defeated former Pahrump resident Rachael Berg 223-209, to advance to the title match.

        Dang is in a great battle with Alexis Atkin for the handicap all-conference points title, and he helped his cause with a 202-174 win over Galvan, good for his second career JBT title.

        Atkin got her revenge in the Women's Series title game, though, beating top seed Leah Glazer 161-154 for the title.

        Thanks to the crew at Pahrump Nugget for another fun visit.  Want in on all this action?  Come on out to the next JBT event, it's that simple~