I caught the last two days of the Turning Stone Classic this weekend near Syracuse, NY. If you followed the brackets or the live scoring only, you probably figured it was just another Turning Stone, with either Shane or Jayson snapping it off with truly overpowering play in the final.
The truth, however, is that some weird and unexpected stuff happened along the way. First, there was the Saturday night Jeremy Sossei vs SVB match. Sossei, who'd already beaten eventual bronze medalist James Aranas, jumped out impressively to a 7-3 lead over Shane and looked like he was cruising. Some will recall that Sossei led Shane 8-4 in a race to nine at the Steinway Classic 10-ball just a few months ago and ultimately lost 9-8, so surely this match at Turning Stone was not yet in the bag. Sossei really only had one bad error while Shane stormed back to 7-7, but Jeremy won rack fifteen to get to the hill with an 8-7 lead. SVB brought it to double hill, but Jeremy had the first good look at a runout in the double hill rack. When Jeremy hung the three ball, that was all Shane needed and proceeded to run out for the match. How big was this match? The winner would go to sleep at 11:30 PM and the loser still had to wait on another match and play a match starting at midnight for a spot on Sunday against the red-hot James Aranas. Sossei survived that one, but looked spent on Sunday morning, never really getting started against Aranas.
Sunday was more orderly. Shane and Kazakis advanced impressively to the hot seat match at the expense of Shaw and Fortunski, each of whom would fall in the next round. Shane won the hot seat easily and Aranas demolished Thorpe in the quarterfinal. As seems to happen more than occasionally with James, his game disappeared and Kazakis crushed him 9-1 in the semis.
The final was where it got weird. Everyone knows that Shane owns Kazakis and, going in, it seemed very unlikely that Alex would get to 13 before Shane. Surely, Shane would dominate with his break and string racks, and Kazakis would be unable to match him blow for blow …. but that's not how it went at all.
Anyone who saw a tactical tug-of war coming is wiser than I am, but that's what we got. Shane was a bit sloppy early and fell behind 6-3, but from that point on, he dominated, I kid you not, with his safety play, It's rare that Shane needs to use this formula to win in the biggest spots, and it's certainly not what he does best, but he shone brightly as a tactician in this match, practically suffocating Kazakis down the stretch.
This Turning Stone turned on a dime on Saturday night when Sossei let SVB escape from Alcatraz. Sunday gave us an improbable, but tasty, climax.
Shane played well and was a very deserving champion. Bravo!
The truth, however, is that some weird and unexpected stuff happened along the way. First, there was the Saturday night Jeremy Sossei vs SVB match. Sossei, who'd already beaten eventual bronze medalist James Aranas, jumped out impressively to a 7-3 lead over Shane and looked like he was cruising. Some will recall that Sossei led Shane 8-4 in a race to nine at the Steinway Classic 10-ball just a few months ago and ultimately lost 9-8, so surely this match at Turning Stone was not yet in the bag. Sossei really only had one bad error while Shane stormed back to 7-7, but Jeremy won rack fifteen to get to the hill with an 8-7 lead. SVB brought it to double hill, but Jeremy had the first good look at a runout in the double hill rack. When Jeremy hung the three ball, that was all Shane needed and proceeded to run out for the match. How big was this match? The winner would go to sleep at 11:30 PM and the loser still had to wait on another match and play a match starting at midnight for a spot on Sunday against the red-hot James Aranas. Sossei survived that one, but looked spent on Sunday morning, never really getting started against Aranas.
Sunday was more orderly. Shane and Kazakis advanced impressively to the hot seat match at the expense of Shaw and Fortunski, each of whom would fall in the next round. Shane won the hot seat easily and Aranas demolished Thorpe in the quarterfinal. As seems to happen more than occasionally with James, his game disappeared and Kazakis crushed him 9-1 in the semis.
The final was where it got weird. Everyone knows that Shane owns Kazakis and, going in, it seemed very unlikely that Alex would get to 13 before Shane. Surely, Shane would dominate with his break and string racks, and Kazakis would be unable to match him blow for blow …. but that's not how it went at all.
Anyone who saw a tactical tug-of war coming is wiser than I am, but that's what we got. Shane was a bit sloppy early and fell behind 6-3, but from that point on, he dominated, I kid you not, with his safety play, It's rare that Shane needs to use this formula to win in the biggest spots, and it's certainly not what he does best, but he shone brightly as a tactician in this match, practically suffocating Kazakis down the stretch.
This Turning Stone turned on a dime on Saturday night when Sossei let SVB escape from Alcatraz. Sunday gave us an improbable, but tasty, climax.
Shane played well and was a very deserving champion. Bravo!
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