THE ORLEANS

champs DJ Sloan & Josh Shoup

      DJ Sloan and Josh Shoup captured JBT titles in exciting Mojave Conference action at The Orleans.

     Brad Hansen continued his hot streak of late by opening the handicap division stepladder finals with a 243-226 victory over first time finalist Dakota Nitz.  Hansen then rolled past Andrew Gottlieb 234-218, before Teo Cipriaso stopped Hansen 199-184 to set up the title match.

    Top seed Shoup broke out of a protracted slump by leading the high-scoring event here, throwing the ball visibly better than in recent events.  He'd need it against Teo, who after being way out of the cut after game four, rattled off 4 games over 200 (and 3 over 260!) the rest of the way.  In an exciting title match, Shoup squeaked out the win for his 3rd career JBT title.

   Nathan Shock, who travels nearly as much as I do for JBT events, opened up the scratch division stepladder with a 258-191 win over all-conference points leader Kyle King.  Sloan then sent Shock back to Colorado with a 202-194 nailbiter win, and followed it up with a 213-198 win over James Hawkins, who averaged just shy of 250 in qualifying, to advance to the title match.

   Top seed Brandon Allred often does well on our difficult patterns, but the talented righty again showed his versatility by leading this very high-scoring event.  A tense title match came down to Allred needing all 3 strikes in the tenth frame, but his first ball left a 10-pin, giving DJ his 4th career JBT title.  He pocketed an extra $100 for winning with Ebonite, our title sponsor's, equipment.

   Thanks as always to the whole crew at The Orleans for being very welcoming hosts every time we visit.  Over $1,600 was awarded to juniors of all ages and averages- want in on the fun?  Come on down to the next JBT event, it's as easy as that!