In danger of posting its worst finish of the season, the OU men’s golf team finally found its game to finish 10th Tuesday at the Puerto Rico Classic in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.

After the first two rounds of golf, the Sooners were well off the pace set by No. 1-ranked Oklahoma State and No. 9 Texas. But OU posted a season-best team score in the final round to climb three spots and earn its first top-10 finish of the spring.

The Sooners started Tuesday’s final round in 13th place after rounds of 292 (+4) and 293 (+5) left them well behind the leaders.

Closing with a final-round team score of 284 (-4), OU hurdled No. 12 Alabama, No. 42 Michigan and Ohio State by carving up the Rio Mar River Golf Course for the fourth-lowest tally of the day.

Senior Ben Blundell, who fired an even-par 72 Tuesday to finish in 19th place, once again led OU in the 15-team tournament.

After a disappointing tie for 49th in the team’s previous competition at the Oak Hills Invitational, Blundell responded with yet another top-20 finish in leading the Sooners for the fourth time in six tournaments.

The senior has accumulated four top-20 honors so far this season, highlighted by a sixth-place finish in OU’s season-opening win at the Kansas Invitational in Lawrence.

Redshirt sophomore Riley Pumphrey carded back-to-back rounds of 71 after opening with a 74 to earn a share of 25th place, finishing with a three-round total of 216 (E).

Pumphrey collected his second-straight top-25 finish as the Georgetown, Texas, native climbed up the leaderboard from a tie for 47th after the end of the first day of play.

Senior Tyler Rody played arguably his best round of golf since the CordeValle Collegiate back in November to shoot a 3-under-par 69 and finish in a tie for 43rd.

Junior Liam Logan (72) and sophomore Ben Klaus (76) rounded out the scoring for OU with finishes in 53rd and 70th place, respectively.

Overnight leader Texas followed up its 19-under-par 269 on the second day with a 12-under-par 276 to cruise to a six-stroke victory over the Cowboys. Oklahoma State posted the day’s best score with a 274, but could not make up enough ground to catch the Longhorns on the leaderboard.

The rest of the field finished well behind the two Big 12 rivals as No. 28 Clemson finished in third place, 21 strokes behind the Longhorns.

Junior Kevin Tway won the individual title for the Cowboys by firing a 66 to overtake second-round leader Cody Gribble of Texas and earn his third collegiate victory.

With the top-10 finish, the Sooners will head into their next tournament with more momentum than the team has had since the spring season began.

After playing two tournaments in the span of nine days, OU will return to action March 5 and 6 at the Border Olympics in Laredo, Texas.

To understand how big Tuesday’s 4-under-par 284 was to the Sooners, take a look at how long it’s been since OU had posted its last under-par round:

• 11 tournaments

• 12 months

• 32 rounds of golf

Tuesday’s play was OU’s best round of golf since the Sooners opened the UTSA Intercollegiate with rounds of 283 (-1) and 281 (-3) on Feb. 16, 2009.