Murphy Survives Hill-Hill Bout at 8-Ball Championship

From the original 56 players who kicked off the National Championship Series 8-Ball Championship event Friday, 32 returned to the tables to do battle and attempt to be one of the six players returning Sunday.

The 1:00 p.m. round left only 16 players, 8 in the winners’ side and 8 on the one-loss side. The 4 p.m. match-ups will be as follows:

Murphy survived a hill-hill match at the NCS 8-Ball Championship to remain undefeated.

Winners’ side:

Walter Glass versus Sal Butera

Jose Alvarez versus Austin Murphy

Reggie Cutler versus Mark Haddad

Jui-Lung Chen versus Jason Bacon

One-Loss Side:

Max Eberle versus Tommy Tokoff

John Dougherty versus Mike Davis (beat by Glass hill-hill)

Oscar Dominguez (lost to Max earlier) versus Jeff Crawford

Brandon Shuff versus Adam Kielar

In the best match of the morning round, 15-year-old Austin Murphy met “Mad Max” Eberle on the winners’ side and took the score to hill-hill. Both players were at the table in the final rack, but it was Murphy who prevailed 8-7.

Other early favorites now fighting it out on the west side of the chart include Mike Davis, who suffered a defeat by Walter Glass, and Oscar Dominguez, who lost to Eberle and now has survived four rounds on the left side of the chart.

In the race-to-8, alternating-break format, the referees stringently check each match every 30 minutes. Players are expected to have at least three racks accounted for after 30 minutes, six racks after 60 minutes, and so on. If the players fail to keep within the time limit, a penalty game is added to each of their scores. 

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