Casey Morsell, Team Takeover Are 2018 Peach Jam Champions

By: Chris Horne |

Team Takeover 17U capped off an exceptional 2018 Nike EYBL season with a Peach Jam Championship. Fueled by a balanced offensive effort in which seven players reached double-digit points, the D.C. area-based AAU squad pulled away from Team WhyNot of California to capture a 96-78 win in Sunday’s (July 15) title game.

The victors were a scorching 36-of-55 (65.5%) from the field, including 11-of-19 (57.9%) from 3-point range.

Team Takeover arrived at Peach Jam as the top seed after compiling a perfect 16-0 record in EYBL Session play. After dropping its second game of Pool play, the talented and hard-nosed team responded with three straight wins to advance to Bracket play. Team Takeover defeated City Rocks in the quarterfinals and MOKAN in the semifinals before taking down Team WhyNot in the championship.

Virginia-bound rising senior guard Casey Morsell (#13 in the Twitter pic above) scored 11 points (4-7 shooting including 2-3 from 3-point range), pulled down 3 rebounds, and dished out 2 assists in the title game. The St. John’s (Washington, D.C.) star averaged 6 points per game while making 38% of his shots in eight games at Peach Jam; however, those numbers don’t tell the whole story for the future Cavalier, who led Takeover in points per game after 16 games of Session play.

Morsell struggled mightily with his shooting in the first three games of Pool play, making only 3-of-20 from the field and missing all 10 3-point attempts while averaging only 2 points per game. The 6’2″, 175-pound guard came back with strong offensive efforts on the last day of Pool play, averaging 10.5 points per game while shooting 7-of-11 from the field (1-of-3 from 3-point range) in two must-win games. Morsell averaged 2.5 rebounds per game in those final two Pool games as well.

In Team Takeover’s final five games at Peach Jam (final two in Pool play plus all three Bracket contests), Morsell totaled 42 points (8.4 points per game) on 15-of-27 shooting (55.6%) and 5-of-13 (38%) from 3. In Bracket play only, Morsell averaged 7 points per game (8-of-16 shooting, including 4-of-10 from 3) and 2.67 rebounds per game. (Note: All stats per iScore Sports)

In case you missed it, ESPN has a replay of the Peach Jam Championship available. Click here to get to watch if you have ESPN3. Marc Stein of Capitol Hoops also produced highlights of the event. Watch Morsell highlights at the following points in the video:

– 5:29-5:34 (driving layup)
– 6:19-6:22 (3-pointer)
– 7:37-7:42 (full-court push and layup)
– 8:03-8:07 (3-pointer)

Stern also interviewed Morsell following the event. That video is below.