Mike Davis
Mike Davis is the current North Carolina State 10-Ball and 8-Ball Open Champion. He chalked up the 10-Ball title last July and the 8-Ball title this past November. On the weekend of February 13-14, he added the North Carolina State Open 9-Ball title to his resume. Davis went undefeated through a field of 52, on-hand for the $750-added event, held under the auspices of the Q City 9-Ball Tour, and hosted by Brass Tap & Billiards in Raleigh, NC.
There was a chance, going into the final rounds, that the opponents from last July's 10-Ball finals (Davis and Steve Page) would face each other again in this 9-Ball event. As they moved into the winners' side semifinals, though, Davis and Page were matched up against each other, preventing a repeat of last July's hot seat match, which went double hill with Davis prevailing. Davis sent Page to the loss side in this one 9-4, and in the hot seat match, faced Daniel Gambill, who'd just sent Randy Hatten over 9-2. Davis gave up only a single rack to Gambill and claimed the hot seat for the second year in a row.
On the loss side, Page, anxious for a rematch against Davis with three matches between him and that possibility, had the misfortune of running immediately into Stevie Moore. Moore, who'd lost his opening match to Mackey Lowery and was in the midst of a 10-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him to the finals, had defeated Josh Padron 9-5 and long-time adversary Keith Bennett 9-2 to reach Page. Hatten drew Jeff Abernathy, who'd gotten by A.J. Hertzog 9-5 and just did survive a double hill battle against Justin Martin.
Moore and Abernathy advanced to the quarterfinals; Moore 9-7 over Page and Abernathy 9-5 over Hatten. Moore then chalked up his 9th and 10th straight with 9-5 wins over Abernathy in those quarterfinals and Gambill in the semifinals. Davis completed his undefeated run at the NC State Open 9-Ball event with an 11-7 victory over Moore in the finals.
