NEW ORLEANS, La. (Feb. 7, 2010) – New Orleans Hornets All-Star point guard Chris Paul has made plenty of clutch shots during his basketball career, but in his bowling experiences, he had never thrown a bigger strike than the one he rolled in helping partner, and Team Turbo staffer, Jason Belmonte rally their team to victory in the Chris Paul PBA Celebrity Invitational at Riverboat Lanes on the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base.

Paul’s seventh-frame strike, sandwiched between strikes in the sixth and eighth frames by Australia’s two-handed sensation got Paul and Belmonte back into their title match against Pittsburgh Steelers’ Pro Bowl linebacker LaMarr Woodley and PBA Hall of Famer Norm Duke. And Belmonte finished the rally with three strikes in the 10th frame to complete the 180-177 come-from-behind win.

The Chris Paul PBA Celebrity Invitational, taped in early January before an overflow crowd of U.S. military personnel, aired Sunday on ESPN. The event was a cooperative venture between the Professional Bowlers Association and Paul’s CP3 Foundation which provides financial assistance to many organizations in his native Winston-Salem, N.C., and in New Orleans.

The competition itself was a Baker Format doubles stepladder, with Storm Products representatives teaming up with Paul, Woodley and fellow Pittsburgh Steelers star Hines Ward, Grammy Award-winning artist and actor Chris “Ludacris” As expected, the PBA stars threw most of the strikes and converted most of the spares, but because of the Baker Format – where teammates bowled alternate frames – it was the celebrity skills that ultimately decided the matches.

 “We were bowling the Chris Paul Invitational was for charity, so the idea was to have fun,” Belmonte said. “But I’m a competitive person and Chris is an extremely competitive person, so we wanted to win. That was our strategy - have fun, but make sure we won, and we did.   For the complete story on The Chris Paul PBA Celebrity Invitational, go to www.pba.com.