Rose Micheaux and Virginia Tech capped off their regular season with a road victory at Clemson. (Virginia Tech athletics)

CLEMSON, S.C. — Virginia Tech gutted out a 78-76 win at Clemson in Sunday’s regular-season finale to finish 9-9 in league play and clinch a single bye in the ACC Tournament.

It was another game that came down to the wire for the Hokies (18-11, 9-9 ACC), who held late leads against Stanford and Boston College in the last 10 days but let them slip away and eventually lost both in overtime.

Not this time.

“We didn’t want to go to OT,” Hokies forward Rose Micheaux joked. “I think we just learned how to face adversity. There’s a lot of adversity when it comes to playing basketball, and we’ve been through a lot of adversity, so we just knew when another team goes on a run, we’ve just go to figure out what we’ve got to do to finish, finish throughout the game, how to hit them back and execute.”

That’s exactly what Tech did. It wasn’t pretty, and it certainly helped that it had a 10-point cushion with 3:19 remaining, but it stood tall in the final moments, an improvement from recent performances.

“Thursday night into a late night returning to Blacksburg was really hard,” Tech head coach Megan Duffy told Tech Sideline after the game. “We tried to give them the rest they needed, mentally and physically, encouragement. We talked about the whole situation at BC, what we could’ve done differently. Take it out of the referee’s hands and stay focused on this team and this group, and I thought Rose [Micheaux] came out today and was awesome, I thought Carleigh [Wenzel]’s focus was really good.

“Again, that’s all you can ask for as a coach — to respond and bounce back. A lot of my younger players are creating this story that if they’re in these close games more and more, they’re going to find ways to get it done, so I’m very proud of them.”

Summah Evans provided a late spark off the bench for the Tigers (13-16, 6-12), scoring all 13 of her points in the fourth quarter. After baskets from Mia Moore and Tessa Miller cut into Tech’s 10-point lead, Evans hit a crucial 3-pointer under two minutes to play.

The Hokies’ lone offense in the clutch was Mackenzie Nelson, who got downhill seamlessly and made three layups in the final 2:30. She finished with 14 points on a career-high seven field goals with five assists and three rebounds.

“I think a lot of my teammates were hitting outside shots,” Nelson said, “so I think they didn’t want to step off Carleigh, Lani [White], Carys [Baker], so I think that just opened the opportunity. I remember one of the layups, the girl didn’t step over and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s because Rose is down there.’”

“I think the key was Mackie Nelson,” Duffy said. “I thought she came in and was awesome on both sides of the floor. Kind of used her quickness to get downhill on some of our sets, did a great job defensively as well.”

Mackenzie Nelson made some key plays for Virginia Tech on both ends in the waning moments. (Virginia Tech athletics)

But Clemson never went away.

Miller converted a layup, which was followed by Tech turning it over against the full-court press, leading to a transition bucket for Loyal McQueen. On the next possession, Evans nailed her second 3-pointer to make cut Tech’s lead to 78-76.

Nelson couldn’t get a layup down with 15 seconds left but the Hokies grabbed the offensive board and Duffy called timeout. However, they missed the ensuing look off a baseline out of bounds play, giving Clemson the ball back with a chance to win.

With fouls to give, Wenzel smartly committed one, making the Tigers reset and inbound the ball again. They found Moore, who had a game-high 24 points and nine rebounds, but her hoist from the baseline didn’t go.

“I thought we executed well enough down the stretch,” Duffy said. “I thought that it helped we had a couple fouls to give at the end when they got the ball back, that killed a little bit of the clock. … They run a lot of stuff and you have to be so engaged, to go to the 3-point line and their cuts and everything. I thought we did a great job with that.”

Tech was in control for the majority of the contest (31:28), though it was neck-and-neck. Each time it seemed like it might pull away, Clemson had an answer.

Both sides were efficient from the floor. The Hokies shot 55 percent (32-of-58) to the Tigers’ 53 percent (31-of-58), including an 8-of-14 mark from behind the arc (57%). The biggest difference was Clemson, the league’s fifth-best 3-point shooting team, was just 6-of-22 (27%). Moreover, Hannah Kohn, whom Duffy described as the best shooter in the league, was 0-for-4. Matilda Ekh drew that assignment and did well.

“The way she can create space and get a three off, they run some great stuff to get her opportunities,” Duffy said. “I thought we did a good enough job that forced them to have a little bit of a different lineup and be maybe a little bit more downhill athletic, but I thought we did a great job.”

“She comes off a lot of flares, down screens, run away from the ball and come right back to it,” Nelson said. “Matilda did a really, really good job on her and I think that was part of the reason we won tonight.”

Moore stepped up in Kohn’s place, and while McQueen and Evans had hefty contributions, the Tigers’ most consistent option was Miller in the post. She had 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists on 9-of-10 shooting. It created a dynamic battle down low with Micheaux, who had 17 points and was 8-of-11 from the floor.

Carleigh Wenzel and Virginia Tech did well at playing off Rose Micheaux's success in the paint. (Virginia Tech athletics)

Virginia Tech did well to play off of Micheaux’s success, though. The ball movement was good — it racked up 17 assists — and really worked the Clemson defense, opening up looks in different areas. Baker drained four 3-pointers and matched Micheaux’s 17 points while Wenzel posted 16 and Nelson had 14. Ekh, White and Kayl Petersen chipped in the other 14.

“I thought we executed some things, but it was a little bit of just playing out of it,” Duffy said. “If you got a post touch, you had to cut and move. At this point in the year, everybody kind of knows each other’s stuff so you have to find creative ways to make plays as players, and I thought [Clemson] had some great moments with it and I thought we did as well. But you have to find ways to get easy baskets and I thought we were a lot tougher than the other night as well.”

The victory capped off a solid first regular season under Duffy that had its share of ups and downs, highlighted by some big wins against Georgia Tech, Louisville and Cal. There’s still basketball left to play — the Hokies are the No. 8 seed in the ACC Tournament and will face the Yellow Jackets on Thursday, March 6, in Greensboro, N.C., at 1:30 p.m. ET — but it’s been an impressive campaign for Tech given so many unknowns.

It’s an example of not judging a book by its cover, according to Micheaux, recalling those who doubted the team throughout the season. Nelson said the group is going to continue to prove people wrong.

Duffy summed it up well: “I didn’t know what our record was going to be, I didn’t know how it would all turn out this year, but I’m proud of the growth we’ve had, more importantly, than anything else.”

Box Score: Virginia Tech 78, Clemson 76