Patrick Allen stumbled as he approached the finish line, but a colossal bad break for Walter Ray Williams Jr., the Professional Bowlers Association’s all-time titles leader, handed Allen the Lumber Liquidators PBA National Bowling Stadium Championship Sunday.
Allen defeated Williams, 225-223, when Williams left a pocket 8-10 split on his second shot in the 10th frame of the title match. A fourth consecutive strike would have meant victory for the 45-time PBA champion after spares by Allen in the ninth and 10th frames gave Williams a chance for a come-from-behind victory.
“After Walter Ray labeled the first one in the tenth, I was just praying for a rolloff,” Allen said. “He is the all-time titles leader because he performs when he needs to. The second shot looked good off his hand. Having that happen to win is something you can’t even imagine.”
Allen, who picked up his 11th career title and first of the 2008-09 season, earned $25,000 and locked up an exemption for the 2009-2010 season. Williams won $13,000 for second place.
“I drifted a hair left on the second ball and didn’t get it to the right spot, seeing the 8-pin standing was like somebody shot me,” Williams said. “I got a few good breaks this week, I just needed one more.”
The tournament was the first in PBA Tour history to employ different lane conditioning patterns on each lane during the match play and ESPN-televised championship rounds. The left lane was conditioned with the PBA’s 44-foot-long Shark pattern while the right lane featured a 36-foot Cheetah pattern, forcing the players to make separate bowling ball and angle-of-attack choices for each lane.
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