Koe Keeps Perfect Record Alive
Jnuary 9, 2009
- Article by Brad Norman
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Kevin Koe is trying to win a Grand Slam event for the first time in his career. After finishing the round robin at The National with a perfect record, he continued his winning streak with a quarter-final victory over Scotland's David Murdoch.
The game started off very evenly matched. It looked as though these two teams would head into the fourth-end break tied up at 3-3. But Kevin Koe made a brilliant hit and roll freeze to force Murdoch to take just a single point, letting Koe lead 3-2 at the mid-point.
In the second half of the game, Koe picked up a single point to extend his lead to two points.
Murdoch was looking for a deuce to tie this game up in the sixth, but a few missed shots foiled that attempt and he elected to blank the end and try again for the multiple points in the seventh.
Again, Murdoch failed to generate multiple points, and settled for a single point. This gave Koe the hammer and a one-point lead in the final end.
Murdoch was pressing hard for the steal, cluttering a lot of rocks around the button. With Koe's first skip stone, he cleared some room with a heavy take out. This left Murdoch with a tough draw, which he pulled off perfectly, drawing through a narrow port and covering the pin. Koe, however, removed the shot stone with a nice hit-and-roll take out.
The shot let Koe pick up another point and the 5-3 win. This advances Koe to the semi-finals.
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