Virginia Tech’s Justyn Mutts’ two-handed slam with 2:26 left in the game sent the Barclays Center crowd into a frenzy and seemed to be the final nail in the coffin for Duke’s hopes of winning one final ACC championship for Mike Krzyzewski. The Hokies held the Blue Devils to just three points after that and Virginia Tech captured its first ACC title in an 82-67 win on Saturday night.
It was the Hokies’ first conference title of any kind since 1979.
” Yeah, I think it was definitely — that moment was huge,” Virginia Tech guard Storm Murphy said about the Mutts dunk. “I think that kind of was a cap, a seal to realize. There was a break right after that, I think the next dead ball we went to the huddle, we were like, we can taste it, we can taste it now. But I think even it started on the way here to Brooklyn and even this morning.
“I think a lot of the guys just had no doubt that we were going to lose, and we completely realized we already had the game won. We just had to do our job.”
The seventh-seeded Hokies are now the lowest seed ever to win the ACC Tournament and spoiled what had been expected to be one final conference title for the legendary Duke coach. The Blue Devils had come into this year’s ACC Tournament as the heavy favorites and much of the focus of this year’s festivities had been on Krzyzewski, who is retiring after leading the program since 1980.
Virginia Tech beats Duke 82-67 to win the ACC championship. #ACCTourney #ACCMBB pic.twitter.com/RSbGiCz6Gl
— Christian Arnold (@C_Arnold01) March 13, 2022
Now Virginia Tech will receive the ACC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament next week after being considered a bubble team when the conference tournament began earlier this week.
“I’ll tell you something else: Holy cow, I don’t watch the prognosticators, bracketologists,” Hokies head coach Mike Young said. “I’m thinking we get to the ACC final, maybe we lose this game. Holy cow, we’ve got to be in the tournament, aren’t we? We are now, so to heck with that stuff. Our name will be called tomorrow and we’ll be excited wherever we may go.”
It was guard Hunter Cattoor’s 31 point performance that stole the show for Virginia Tech and his 11-for-16 shooting from the field, and his 7-of-9 from beyond the arc. Forward Keve Aluma finished the night with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists Murphy had 9 points in the win.
The Hokies shot 50% (32-of-64) from the field and 45.5% (10-of-22) from three.
Forward Paolo Banchero head a team-high 20 points for Duke and the Blue Devils shot 49% (24-of-49) and just 20% (4-of-20) from three-point range. Duke’s shooting struggles picked up in the second half as they shot just 9-for-23 from the field.
The Hokies quickly jumped out to a 13-6 run to open the second half and took a 55-45 lead by the 15:44 mark of the half. Cattoor recorded nine of Virginia Tech’s 13 points during the run.
“I think just the rhythm of the game, my teammates and Coach Young trusting in me, just the system that we play in,” Cattooor said about his success on Saturday. “I was going through a rough shooting slump and every time in practice, every time in the games, my teammates would tell me I’m the best shooter in the gym. So just having that mindset and that trust from my players, it’s welcoming to hear that.”
Duke managed to close the gap by the 10:48 mark of the half when forward Wendell Moore Jr. knocked down a three to cut the deficit to five. A turnaround jumper by Duke forward AJ Griffin cut the lead to five again at the 9:12 mark.
A stepback three from Cattoor gave Virginia Tech a 70-60 lead with 6:08 left in the game. Mutts’ dunk a few minutes later gave the Hokies that sense that a win was in reach and a driving layup from Aluma padded that lead even more.
“I thought our offense was good. We just didn’t hit shots,” Krzyzewski said. “We couldn’t stop them. When you don’t hit shots, you don’t look like you’re running good offense. We got, even down 10, we got two threes that are in and out and missed four free throws. I had not a problem with our offense, but we couldn’t stop them, and that was the game.”
After his final ACC tournament, a defeat in a championship game he’d won 15 times, Coach K walks off the court and into his team’s locker room hand-in-hand with his wife, Mickie. pic.twitter.com/FxEUVt1bQO
— Andrew Carter (@_andrewcarter) March 13, 2022
