Hokies KO Coach K, Duke for first ACC Tournament title

By Sam Alves

Staff Writer

March 12, 2022

BROOKLYN, N.Y. –– Most folks gave Virginia Tech a snowball’s chance in you-know-where to make much of a season gone awry in late January.

Miami’s Charlie Moore banked in a game-winning, buzzer-beating 3-pointer to stun the Hokies in Cassell Coliseum, dropping Tech to 2-7 in the ACC after an underwhelming non-conference performance.

Fitting, then, that on a spring-stopping Saturday night in Brooklyn, when the wind whipped thick snowflakes ‘round and ‘round, Virginia Tech landed blow after blow against perennial power Duke to win its first ACC Tournament, 82-67.

“It’s really a special thing for our basketball team,” Tech head coach Mike Young said of the historic win. “This is a special thing for Blacksburg; for southwest Virginia –– where I'm from, where I grew up; for the state of Virginia; for our unbelievable Hokie fan base. They'll always remember this team and what they've accomplished.”

Front and center on their minds will be the performance of Hunter Cattoor’s life. Cattoor, who only scored in double digits once in the last nine games entering Saturday, put up 31 points –– a career high –– to earn ACC Tournament MVP honors.

“I think the really cool thing about Hunt is over the last month or whatnot, he hasn't shot it so great, and he's owned that struggle,” Tech point guard Storm Murphy said. “He's talked about that. He's embraced that. He hasn't hid from it.

“We've all come around to him and continued to just tell him, ‘My goodness, you're the best shooter in the gym anywhere we go.’ He's believed that and then popped off today like that.”

Joining Cattoor in double figures was forward Keve Aluma (19 points), and Murphy wasn’t far off with nine points himself.

It’s been quite the journey for the trio of Young, Murphy and Aluma, who together at Wofford earned a No. 7 seed in the NCAA tournament and went toe-to-toe with Kentucky in the second round in 2019. Throw in Cattoor, too, who committed to Wofford before heading to Blacksburg with Young, and you have the quartet who led the Hokies to glory.

“It's crazy,” Cattoor, joined by Aluma and Murphy onstage, said when asked about his role on an ACC championship-winning team. “I went and watched [Murphy and Aluma] play at the first round NCAA tournament when you all played Seton Hall.

“I was preparing to go to Wofford since September when I committed, so just to have this moment right now, it speaks about Coach Young and how he can coach.

“And just these players, Keve and Storm, that can play at any level. Whenever people doubted them and said they couldn't do it throughout the whole season, we just proved it all tonight.”

Despite the lopsided score, the Hokies only led by three at halftime, 42-39, the slimmest margin at the half for Tech all tournament.

Cattoor, who scored 17 of Tech’s first 27 points, didn’t play the last 4:13 of the first half after picking up his second foul.

“You know, I'd say he had a Clay Thompson night,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said of Cattoor.

He picked up right where he left off to start the second half, though, making Tech’s first four field goals of the second half, including two more triples.

Despite his early success from behind the arc and the consequences of an early third foul, Cattoor wasn’t shy about attacking the rim, either.

“Honestly, it was kind of a blur going through it,” Cattoor said. “Like coach Young talked to us before in the locker room, just go out there and have fun, and so I was kind of doing that. He mentioned like out there playing on the playground, so I just felt like I was in my front yard, shooting on the front grill.

“I dreamed of moments like this, and it happened, so I'm grateful.”

Cattoor also pushed the offense in transition, a rarity in Tech’s methodical scheme. Though it only scored nine on the run, key plays on the run gave Tech clean looks at the rim.

Take, for example, his three-point play to push Tech’s lead to 10 early in the second half. Or his pass ahead to Aluma late for another and-one.

Cattoor’s outburst overshadowed another sensational performance from Aluma, who with 10 boards was three assists short of a triple-double. His best helper found Justyn Mutts from under the rim for a monster dunk over Duke’s Paolo Banchero, who stumbled and was stared down by Mutts after the play.

“I think the next dead ball we went to the huddle,” Murphy started. “We were like, 'We can taste it. We can taste it now.'

“But I think it even 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.”

One key to that job was keeping Duke off the glass. Tech out-rebounded the Blue Devils 14-11 at halftime. Banchero did not record a single board at the intermission.

In the second half, the Hokies widened that gap, ending the game with a 37-26 edge on the glass, including a 13-4 advantage on the offensive end. Banchero finished the game with just five boards, though he was the game’s second-leading scorer with 20 points.

So when the final buzzer rang –– with Ben Varga and friends on the floor for the second straight night –– the confetti fell maroon and orange, and nerves over the nebulous NCAA Tournament bubble were replaced by jubilation and gratitude.

“I think we talked about it as a team –– that now it's forever,” Murphy said of the title. “Like it's etched, it's ingrained that we're forever champions. That's just something to be proud of, and it's really special. And no one will be able to take that away.”