Virginia Tech beats Duke to win first ACC Tournament title in school history

Not only did Virginia Tech knock off one of the top teams in the country Saturday, they made history in the process.

The Hokies triumphed 82-67 over Duke in the ACC Tournament championship game, securing the first tournament title in program history. They also earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament after being considered a bubble team prior to this week.

According to the ESPN broadcast, Virginia Tech became just the second team in ACC history to win four games in four days en route to the tournament title. Duke did it in 2017, also at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Virginia Tech found the winning formula by feeding its offense through junior guard Hunter Cattoor while limiting Duke's production from the perimeter. Cattoor scored a career-high 31 points on 11-for-16 from the field while going 7-for-9 from beyond the arc. He received tournament MVP honors after the game.

Also turning in a key performance for the Hokies was senior forward Keve Aluma, who logged 19 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. No other Virginia Tech players finished in double digits in points, but nine Hokies did score in the game.

Duke, meanwhile, couldn't get much going outside of star freshman Paolo Banchero, who finished with 20 points and five rebounds on 8-for-11 shooting. The second highest Duke scorer was Wendell Moore Jr., who had 11 points. Mark Williams scored eight, but had four fouls, and AJ Griffin had 10 points, though he shot 1-for-8 from three-point range. In total, Duke shot 4-for-20 (20 percent) from deep.

Before the game, Virginia Tech was listed as ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi's "Last Team Out." A win like this would likely have added enough to the Hokies' resume to get them comfortably in as an at-large bid, but they will no longer need to worry about that as they've automatically qualified.

Both Virginia Tech and Duke will learn their tournament draw Sunday night at 8 pm ET on ESPN.