For the first time in five years, things in the ACC are looking up for Virginia Tech.

For the past four years, their ACC brethren have been looking down on the Hokies, who have languished in the conference cellar every season.

But 2016 brought new hope and on Saturday the Hokies culminated their regular season by running roughshod over No. 7 Miami at Cassel Coliseum in Blacksburg, Va.

Guard Justin Bibbs scored 19 points and forward Zach LeDay played with a vengeance and added 16 points to lead the Hokies past the Hurricanes, 77-62.

"Any time you're trying to make up ground, and I don't even know if that would be the accurate assessment of what it was when I got there," Virginia Tech coach Buzz Williams said of his team's improvement. "Ground means you're on top. We were under the ground."

The Hokies (18-13, 10-8 ACC) head into the conference tournament as the No. 6 seed. Their 10 ACC victories are the Hokies' highest total in six years. The Hokies won just two league games last year.

Guard Davon Reed led Miami (24-6, 13-5) with 19 points and fellow guard Sheldon McClellan added 17 to pace Miami.

"Virginia Tech came out very ready to play, played a terrific game from start to finish," Miami coach Jim Laranaga said. "They defended us really well in the first half. I think, we were a little too focused on what was at stake. We wanted it so badly, to win and to solidify that we would get at least a share of the conference regular season championship.

"I told the team afterwards, it's not about focusing on the result, it's focusing on the process. The process is playing good defense, rebounding, executing the offensive game plan. We just didn't do that."

Miami would have claimed at least a share of the ACC regular-season title if it had beaten the Hokies.

"We came together last night and watched how they played at North Carolina," LeDay said, referring to Miami's 96-71 loss to the Tar Heels on Feb. 20. "We said, 'We can get them at Cassell. If they played like this at Carolina, we can definitely get them.' We knew if we threw that first punch and keep on throwing punches and play together ... we did that and it was a good game for us."

If there was any doubt that the Hokies could compete with the league's best, one just has to look back to January when they knocked off No. 4 Virginia.

Miami held a 3-0 lead on Saturday. That was the highlight for the Hurricanes because before Miami knew what hit them, the Hokies had gone on a 14-4 run to take a 26-14 lead.

Bibbs and Company smelled blood and never let up.

Miami had won eight of nine to climb inside the Top 10. The Hurricanes were coming off perhaps their best road performance of the season, a 68-50 rout of Notre Dame. But on this day, the Hurricanes never were in the game.

After taking a 32-21 lead into halftime, the Hokies' defense kept up the pressure that had forced nine Miami turnovers in the first half and only allowed the Hurricanes to connect on one of 10 tries from beyond the arc.

The Hokies led by 13 early in the second half before Miami used a 10-2 run to cut the lead to 39-33 on a 3-pointer by guard Angel Rodriguez.

But the Hokies answered with a 10-2 run, getting back-to-back 3-pointers from Seth Allen and Zach LeDay to start the run.

"When you're playing any team, particularly a team as good as they are, they're going to go on a run," Williams said. "It's not really when a team is going on a run. The way to handle it is how are you going to respond to the run. I thought our response was really good."

Guards Justin Robinson and Allen also added 15 and 14 points, respectively, for the Hokies.

The Hurricanes entered the game allowing only 65.7 points per game, ranking them 41st in the country. But the Hokies blitzed the vaunted Hurricane defense from outside and inside.

Virginia Tech finished the game shooting nine of 17 (52.9 percent) from 3, while Miami made only four of 24 (16.7 percent) from beyond the arc.

Virginia Tech shot a sizzling 52.9 percent on 27 of 51 from the field.

NOTES: Virginia Tech will play either No. 11-seed Florida State or No. 14-seed Boston College in the second round of the ACC tournament Wednesday night in Washington, D.C. FSU and BC will meet at Tuesday in a first-round game. The Hokies were 1-0 against FSU and 1-0 against Boston College this season. ... Miami plays Thursday in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament. ... Miami had won 17 straight games when McClellan has reached double figures. ... The Hurricanes held Zach LeDay and Seth Allen to 11 points in a 65-49 win on Feb. 17. ... Nine ACC wins is more than double what the Hokies managed the past two seasons combined, when they finished 2-16 in league play. ... The Hurricanes played without Ja'Quan Newton, who was sitting out the third game of his three-game suspension for a violation of team rules. Newton averages 10.9 points per game. ... The Hurricanes scored on back-to-back possessions just once in the first half.