March 31, 2024 Nolan Hughes

New Jersey sweeps Dallas, Waco upsets Las Vegas to close Round 10

The final Round 10 matches of the PBA Elite League presented by Snickers, televised from Suncoast Bowling Center in Las Vegas, took place on Saturday night.

The New Jersey KingPins dispatched the struggling Go Bowling Dallas Strikers in consecutive games, 196-195 and 242-201.

With the win, the KingPins moved to 7-3 and now hold a five-game advantage over Dallas and Waco with just four rounds remaining. Therefore, New Jersey — and the Portland Lumberjacks — have clinched a trip to the postseason, featuring the top six teams in the PBA Elite League.

 

The 7-3 Las Vegas High Rollers had already clinched a postseason berth, but fell to the Wonders on Saturday.

The High Rollers hoped to take a one-game lead over the KingPins and Lumberjacks for a postseason bye.

Instead those three teams enter the final four rounds of the season in the three-way tie with just two playoff byes available.

“Our goal now is to continue to try to win matches so we can get that bye, that’s very important,” KingPin co-manager Carolyn Dorin-Ballard said.

The Wonders earned their second televised win of the season, winning 224-212 and 211-184. Unfortunately for the defending Elias Cup champions, those are the teams' only wins of the season.

Tied with the 2-8 Wonders in the PBA Elite League cellar are the floundering Strikers, who fell two full games behind Lucky Strike L.A. X and a postseason berth.

Through 10 rounds, the Strikers boast the third best team average in the league; their opponents, however, average a whopping 226.10, nearly 10 pins more than the next highest team.

Bill O’Neill, who took responsibility for the Strikers’ loss to Waco on Saturday, which he called their worst match of the season, said it feels like everything has gone against his team so far this season.

“We’ve bowled fairly well most of the season,” O’Neill said. “We just haven't been able to get anything going. We’ve had a lot of big scores pulled against us and untimely breaks or bad shots and just just everything's going against us so far this season. We're killing ourselves right now.”

“We're making some good shots, it’s just the pins haven’t fallen our way,” Shawn Maldonado added. “And then if we are bowling well, our opponents are bowling better. They're just striking way more than us.”

The PBA Elite League continues next week in Allen Park, Mich. Round 11 will take place April 3 at 6 p.m. Eastern on BowlTV, then the entirety of Round 12 will be televised on April 6 and April 7.

The PBA Elite League schedule is available here. 

With four rounds remaining, there is time for the Strikers and Wonders to make a last season charge. But time is running out.

“We're probably gonna need all the rest of the way to try to get in (the playoffs)," O'Neill said.

More information on the PBA Elite League is available here.

Round 10 Results

New Jersey def. Dallas, 2-0 (196-195, 242-201)
Waco def. Las Vegas, 2-0 (224-212, 211-184)

Standings

Team, Record, Pinfall

*New Jersey KingPins, 7-3, 4,181
Las Vegas High Rollers, 7-3, 4,324
Portland Lumberjacks, 7-3, 4,365
Akron Atom Splitters, 6-4, 4,158
Motown Muscle, 5-5, 4,262
Lucky Strike L.A. X, 4-6, 4,247
GoBowling Dallas Strikers, 2-8, 4,316
Waco Wonders, 2-8, 4,109

*The three-way tiebreaker between New Jersey, Las Vegas and Portland is incomplete at this point.