Reyes defeats Jeong to win Mid Atlantic title

Efren Reyes

Efren Reyes has defeated Young Hwa Jeong 13-7 to win the Mid Atlantic 9-Ball Championship in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Both players played extremely well all week, and neither player lost a match until they met to play for the hot seat on Sunday. Jeong came out the victor in that match 11-8 but that would not be the last Jeong would see Reyes in this tournament.

Reyes took his trip to the one-loss side where he had a rematch with fellow Filipino player Francisco Bustamante. Efren defeated 2002 Player of the Year, Bustamante 11-6 on Saturday night and repeated that performance Sunday afternoon with an 11-8 victory to set up the rematch with Jeong in the finals.

The final match went back and forth early with neither player holding a lead of more than one game and the lead going back and forth until the 4-4 mark. It was then that Reyes made his move and pushed out to a 9-4 lead before scoring the 13-7 victory.

Reyes was quiet and humble, as usual and chalked up the win to his knack for getting lucky in the first events of each year.

Reyes pocketed $15,000 for the win while Jeong settled for $8,000 in second place prize money. Bustamante and Rodney Morris filled out the top four spots.

View all the match results with our online brackets and check out all the images in our Mid Atlantic Photo Gallery.

Photo courtesy of Diana Hoppe - Pool Pics by Hoppe