September 15, 2024 Nolan Hughes

The opening round of the PBA Elite League presented by Snickers Playoffs delivered one thrilling roll-off and one head-scratching sweep.

The Motown Muscle escaped with a roll-off victory over the New Jersey KingPins. Motown advances to face the top-seeded Las Vegas High Rollers in Monday’s first semifinal, which begins at 7 p.m. Eastern on FS1.

In the second quarterfinal, the Akron Atom Splitters prevailed over Lucky Strike L.A. X in a two-game sweep. Akron will face the Portland Lumberjacks in the second semifinal, starting Monday at 9 p.m. ET on FS1.

Motown anchor Anthony Simonsen experienced déjà vu to close Game 2 of the Race-to-Two quarterfinal.

Simonsen, needing a double to shut out New Jersey, aced the first strike, then wrapped a 10-pin on his second shot — exactly how he lost the PBA Tournament of Champions title match to New Jersey’s Marshall Kent earlier this year.

In an odd way, Kent returned the favor tonight.

After the teams tied at 29 in a three-ball roll-off, Motown’s co-star EJ Tackett wrapped a 10-pin of his own. With a strike sending New Jersey to the semis, Kent only knocked over six pins and left the Big Four.

This marks Tackett’s 10th season in the PBA League. Despite winning two Player of the Year awards during that span (and potentially a third this season) he has yet to win the Elias Cup.

“I want to win,” Tackett said emphatically. “Simo and I are getting older and more experienced. Jason (Sterner) has been around for a long time and has a ton of experience. And then we’ve got three younger guys — Sam Cooley, Justin Knowles and Zac Tackett — who have made shows and bring a little bit of that fire to the team, too. We got off to a slow start to the season, but once we learned how to communicate with each other, we went on an 8-2 run. Hopefully we can continue that tomorrow night.”

Manager Jason Couch said he feels his squad is the team to beat — period. Motown will put that to the test tomorrow night against the league’s top team in Las Vegas.

While the Atom Splitters are moving on, it’s why L.A. X is heading home that was perhaps the story of the night.

Player-manager Jason Belmonte had an opportunity to win each game with his 10th frame. In the first, he missed the head-pin left, then missed the spare to make Akron anchor Jesper Svensson's job even easier.

In Game 2, Belmonte needed a strike but again missed left. He went Brooklyn and left the 5-pin.

“(Belmonte) is arguably the greatest bowler of all time, and I believe he's the greatest bowler of all time, so that's not something you expect ever,” Akron’s Chris Via said. “It was very fortunate obviously for our team that it happened that way. It seems like we can never really have an easy match on TV. We rallied together as a team and I think we communicated very, very well."

Via added that his team rallied together and communicated really well, two things Akron will need to continue against the hometown Lumberjacks on Monday night.

“Bowling against Portland in Portland is always going to be a challenge. We know the crowd's definitely going to be on their side,” Via said. “Jesper is coming off a win in Sweden and Frankie's had a fantastic August, winning a few tournaments himself. We're all bowling really, really well right now and it just feels like we're all clicking together at the right time. I like our chances against anyone right now.”

The semifinals begin Monday, Sept. 16 at 7 p.m ET on FS1.

PBA Elite League Playoffs Schedule

Quarterfinal 1: No. 4 Motown def. No. 5 New Jersey, 2-1
Game 1: 254-229 Motown
Game 2: 208-204 New Jersey
Roll-off: 29-29, 9-6 Motown

Quarterfinal 2: No. 3 Akron def. No. 6 L.A. X, 2-0
Game 1: 247-245 Akron
Game 2: 227-206 Akron

Semifinal 1
Monday, Sept. 16 | 7pm ET on FS1
No. 1 Las Vegas vs. No. 4 Motown

Semifinal 2
Monday, Sept. 16 | 9pm ET on FS1
No. 2 Portland vs. No. 3 Akron

Elias Cup Finals
Tuesday, Sept. 17 | 7pm ET on FS1
Las Vegas/Motown vs. Portland/Akron