In the final game of Pool A play at Peach Jam Friday night (July 13), University of Virginia-bound guard Casey Morsell and his Team Takeover (D.C.) teammates faced elimination. A win over Bluff City Legends (TN) would advance them to the Peach Jam quarterfinals. A loss would send them home.
Bluff City trailed by as many as 10 in the first-half before closing to within one point at halftime. The second half was all Team Takeover, however, as Keith Stevens’ squad pulled away for a 70-52 win and a spot in today’s (July 14) Peach Jam quarterfinals.
Morsell, a 6’2”, 175-pound rising senior out of St. John’s (Washington, D.C.), led the Team Takeover second-half onslaught, scoring 9 of his 11 points in second-half play according to reporter Matt Cohen (click here to read Cohen’s write-up, which includes quotes from Morsell). After struggling in his team’s first three games of Pool play (3-20 shooting, 0-10 from 3), the 4-star Morsell responded on Friday with a clutch performance against Bluff City and, earlier in the day, a 10-point, 3-rebound, 2-steal, 1-block outing in an equally important 77-52 victory over Indy Heat.
Team Takeover arrived at Peach Jam as the top seed after a 16-0 showing in Nike EYBL Session play this spring. Morsell and company defeated E1T1 (FL) on Wednesday (July 11), the first day of Pool play, before dropping Thursday morning’s contest to Nike Team Florida. Takeover rebounded with a win over the Oakland Soldiers Thursday night before taking down Indy and Bluff City Friday.
Pool play is now over. Eight teams have advanced to the Peach Jam quarterfinals, which take place at noon ET Saturday (July 14). This is single-elimination bracket play. The semifinals take place tonight at 7 p.m. ET and the Peach Jam championship is on Sunday, July 15 at 2 p.m. ET.
Team Takeover begins its quest for a Peach Jam title against the City Rocks (N.Y.) at noon.
Highlights of Team Takeover’s win over Bluff City are below. They are courtesy of Marc Stern of Capitol Hoops. You can see Tony Bennett watching from the sidelines at 0:19 mark (he’s standing up). Morsell highlights are from 5:15-5:18, 5:32-5:37, and 5:39-5:45.
