SEMMES, Ala. – Louisiana Tech's Morton Bailey and Abel Derksen each finished under par for the third straight round on Tuesday at the Hal Williams Collegiate as both Bulldogs finished the event five under, tying for ninth.
 
The Magnolia Grove Golf Course played a full stroke harder in the final round.  LA Tech would shoot one over (281) as a team, ultimately finishing in seventh on the team leaderboard with an overall score of 833 (-7).
 
Derksen had the best scorecard for the Bulldogs in round three, closing out the day with a birdie on his final hole the long Par 4 No. 4 to shoot 68 (-2) which tied his season low from round one.  The sophomore ended up claiming his first top 10 placing of his collegiate career.
 
Bailey had a sporadic round that included five bogeys and six birdies.  The sophomore would finish with a one under 69 to secure his first collegiate top 10.  He now has four top 20 finishes in his six tournaments this season and has six of his last seven rounds at or under par.
 
As a result, Derksen and Bailey outdueled seven players who were ranked in the top 150 in the country.
 
The remaining two scorecards used for LA Tech came from Riley Hnatyshyn and Oskari Schuvalow who each registered a final round of 72 (+2).  Both Bulldogs tied for 39th on the player leaderboard.
 
No. 13-ranked Illinois ran away with the team title, shooting 809 (-31). 
 
LA Tech ended up tallying three wins over top 100 teams including Southern Illinois (87), Rice (53), and host South Alabama (57).
 
QUOTABLES
Head coach Matt Terry
 
"I was pleased with the way we competed this tournament.  We are still making some sloppy mistakes, but we will continue to clean those up at home in each practice.  I was especially pleased to see us go from last in par five scoring in our last event to second in this event.  Morton continued his solid play finishing in the top 10, and it was great to see Abel have his hard work pay off with a top 10 finish as well.  All in all, the team got better this week."
 
UP NEXT
LA Tech will send four individuals to participate in the Golden Nugget Invitational March 2-3 in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  The event will be hosted by Lamar University.
 
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