2025 PBA Players Championship Finals

S. Samek

Another PBA Tour major championship is on the line this weekend. The PBA Players championship. Let’s recap the action from the stepladder finals.

This event had a nine-player stepladder and took place over two days. Kevin McCune, Nick Pate, Anthony Simonsen, Jason Sterner and Jason Belmonte qualified for the preliminary stepladder on Saturday.

Ethan Fiore earned the top seed for the main stepladder on Sunday. Ryan Barnes, Alec Keplinger and Tim Foy Jr qualified in the second through fourth seeds and earned spots in the main stepladder along with Fiore.

The preliminary stepladder started with McCune facing Pate. McCune cruised to victory 240-186 to advance.

McCune was even better in the second match against Simonsen as he won 246-194 to move on once more.

the third match of the stepladder was really close. Yet it was McCune holding off Stener 190-189 to reach the last match of the preliminary stepladder against Belmonte. McCune took down Belmonte 243-210 to advance to the main stepladder finals.

McCune would then start the main stepladder in a match against Foy Jr. That’s where his run up the ladder came to an end as Foy Jr. defeated him 235-185.

Foy Jr then went on to defeat Keplinger 247-215 to reach the semifinal match.

Barnes would meet Foy Jr in the semifinal match. Barnes would end Foy Jr’s run with a 264-235 win.

That set up a championship match between the top two seeds in Barnes and Fiore. Fiore would go on to best Barnes in the match 232-179 to win the title.

The title is Fiore’s first PBA title and first major title in his career.

This week is the PBA Tournament of Champions. This event concludes the PBA regular season and is the last event to earn points toward the PBA playoffs, Tour finals and PBA Elite League. As well as another major title on the line. Tune in next week to see who takes home the win.