HOUSTON – EJ Tackett and Danielle McEwan established a big lead early in the round robin finals and hung on to win the title Sunday at the 2021 Storm PBA/PWBA Striking Against Breast Cancer Mixed Doubles.

In the total pins format, Tackett and McEwan amassed a total of 9,279 over 20 games at Copperfield Bowl to win the event which supports the fight against breast cancer.

Leading by 175 heading into the position round game, Tackett and McEwan defeated Tannya Roumimper and Francois Lavoie, 426-419, to officially lock up the victory. Roumimper and Lavoie finished second with 9,067.

Liz Johnson and Anthony Simonsen battled within range of McEwan and Tackett late in the block but faded down the stretch to finish third with 9,026.

It’s the second time Tackett has won the PBA/PWBA Mixed Doubles, claiming the title with Johnson in 2018. It gave Tackett his 14^th PBA career title and first since the 2019 PBA Tour Finals. For McEwan, it was her first win at the event and increased her career PWBA title count to six.

In previous years, Tackett has teamed up with Johnson, while McEwan has competed with Simonsen.

In 2020, Tackett and McEwan were scheduled to compete in an event in Australia that conflicted with the mixed doubles, so that allowed Johnson and Simonsen to pair up for a year.

However, both events were canceled in 2020 and when the roster for the mixed doubles was just moved forward for 2021, they decided to keep their new partners for this year’s event.

The event began with four qualifying squads over two days as each team in the field bowled one seven-game block of qualifying. The top 40 teams advanced to Sunday morning’s semifinals, which was another five games.

The top eight battled it out Sunday afternoon in the finals for the $20,000 first-place prize, eventually taken home by Tackett and McEwan.

After the win, Tackett told FloBowling he was dedicating the victory to the Peters family. PBA champion Jake Peters lost his wife Melissa to cancer earlier this year.