Virginia Tech stuns Duke as No. 7 seed, wins first ACC tournament title

NEW YORK — For the second straight Saturday night, Duke failed to deliver coach Mike Krzyzewski a send-off victory.

This time it was Virginia Tech playing party pooper.

Hunter Cattoor scored a career-high 31 points, and the seventh-seeded Hokies won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament for the first time, beating Duke 82-67 on Saturday night to deny Krzyzewski a league title in his final season.

Virginia Tech (23-12) came to Brooklyn in need a of a run to make the NCAA tournament, and the Hokies became just the second ACC team to take the crown with four wins in four days. They also are the lowest seed to win the most-storied conference tournament in college basketball.

The Hokies will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 43 years, tied for the fourth-longest span between automatic bids in NCAA Division-I history, according to research from ESPN Stats & Information. Virginia Tech's last — and only — conference tournament championship came in 1979, when the Hokies were in the Metro Conference.

Duke lost Coach K's final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium to rival North Carolina a week ago, derailing what the school hoped would be a joyful celebration of the winningest coach in Division I men's college basketball.

The top-seeded and seventh-ranked Blue Devils (28-6) got another chance for a feel-good victory and to add at least one more trophy to the case for the retiring Hall of Fame coach, but again it was not to be.

When Justyn Mutts made a two-hand slam over Duke's star freshman Paolo Banchero with 2:26 left in the second half, Virginia Tech led 76-64 and the Hokies fans rose with roar. Virginia Tech's first ACC championship since joining the conference in 2004 was sealed.

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