It’s probably fair to say that to this point in his first-year at UVa, things haven’t exactly played out the way Casey Morsell thought they might.

But that hasn’t stopped him from coming back, night after night, hoping to learn more and move forward.

The former four-star Rivals150 guard has had a handful of solid games, including a career-high 19-point effort against Arizona State in the Air Force Reserve event in November, to which he was named to the All-Tournament team.

But, despite playing in all 24 games thus far this season, outside of that November win over the Sun Devils the former St. John’s College HS standout had only scored in double-figures one other time (the win over Navy on December 29th)

That is, until Saturday’s 64-62 victory at North Carolina.

Morsell scored 10 points against the Heels on 4-for-6 shooting, which included making both of his 3-point attempts.

For a guy who came in shooting just 16.1 percent from deep and 25 percent from the floor, it was the kind of performance that could imply there’s more coming soon.

Though JUCO transfer Tomas Woldetensae isn’t technically his classmate, he’s a newcomer like Morsell and his recent hot streak has helped the Wahoos in a number of critical ways.

Morsell is hopeful that his time is coming just the same.

“A lot of us are still just trying to figure it out,” he said following the Carolina win. “Tom, me, Kody (Stattmann). Everybody’s just trying to figure it out. Tom’s getting it. I’m starting to get it a little bit more. Everybody’s just moving in the right direction and that’s all that matters.”

In the aftermath of Woldetensae’s game-winner, Morsell was happy to see both his team get the W and that his teammate executed so well moments after making a big mistake on the other end of the floor.

“It feels good,” the Fort Washington (MD) native said. “It was much needed. We work on those shots every day. Just to see it go in, it’s a good feeling especially to pull out a win in this type of environment. It’s a good step for our team.”

That environment didn’t seem to slow Morsell down much, though he took away plenty from his 20 minutes on the floor.

“One thing about it being really loud is communication is big,” he explained. “Lot of times, toward the end of the stretch, we were miscommunicating on a lot of things and that’s one thing I really noticed. Once we locked in on the communication aspect, then it’s way easier to play in that type of environment.”

This was the first time in a while that Tony Bennett has really gone with Morsell for a host of crunch-time minutes and he delivered.

“I thought I saw it in the last game, I thought he gave us a nice lift," Bennett said of Morsell's improvement. "I thought he made some strides in the last game, he’s had a couple of weeks of some solid practices. Obviously his percentages aren’t great but that doesn’t matter. Every game it starts anew. To bang a couple of those 3s and make some plays, [plus] we know he can guard the ball. That really helped us, with no turnovers.”

So what did it mean to him for Bennett to have him out there down the stretch?

“It’s a good feeling,” Morsell said. “I was just kind of already in the zone. It’s a good feeling to be in there. We’re in a lot of close games and if I’m not out there I’m on the bench like ‘I want to be out there.’ Just being out there, it’s relieving and I’m thankful.”

Like many players, it helps Morsell when he sees his first shot go down, as it did in the Smith Center. But you can’t be discouraged even if it doesn’t, he explained. That’s something he’s learned.

“It helps,” Morsell said. “Just got to have a clear mindset for each shot and not have one shot affect the next shot. I think that was my problem earlier. It was like, okay one shot doesn’t goes in and I would change something or do something to the next shot and that’s why the percentages are lower. Now, it’s just shoot each shot the same and just have a short memory.”

While Morsell’s desire to work hard hasn’t wavered, the response from his teammates and coaches has been consistent too.

“Everybody in that locker room just says stay with it,” he said. “Those guys believe in me more than anything. That’s one of the reasons why I’m so glad I came here. They never lose faith, no matter how you’re shooting. Once they see you put the work in, they immediately believe in you a lot.”

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