BRADENTON – Florida sophomore Sekou Bangoura Jr. returned to his hometown and Sunday won the singles championship at the Lakewood Ranch Intercollegiate Clay Court Classic.
Bangoura, ranked No. 111 nationally, needed three sets but he prevailed over Andres Carrasco of Arizona, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1. Bangoura won five matches in three days to claim the title in the tournament, which wraps the team’s fall season. It was Florida’s second singles championship this fall. Sophomore Bob van Overbeek won the University of Texas Invitational last weekend.
Florida’s doubles team of freshmen Michael Alford and Andrew Butz reached the championship match before falling in a tiebreaker to Rok Bonin and Julian Dehn of Minnesota, 9-8 (3). Alford and Butz defeated another pair of Golden Gophers, Sebastian Gallego and Tobias Wernet, 8-6, in an earlier semifinal Sunday.
Alford also won his final singles consolation match, downing Miami’s Omar Aly, 7-6 (3), 6-3, in the consolation semifinals. Butz, meanwhile, lost to Dehn, 6-2, 2-6, 1-0 (10-8), in the other semifinal. But Dehn defaulted to make Alford the winner of the consolation bracket.