No. 13 Virginia Tech completed a 13-point comeback against No. 3 NC State on Sunday, capped off by Elizabeth Kitley’s game-winning layup with 0.9 seconds remaining. It’s Tech’s third-ever top-five win.

Here are three takeaways from the Hokies’ 63-62 win, which puts them at 12-2, 3-0 in the ACC:

1. Rallying with their backs against the wall and pulling out a win against that competition shows how far the program has come.

A handful of years ago, Virginia Tech struggled to close out big games. In 2020-21 alone, it blew five leads of 10-plus. It seemed to run out of gas down the stretch, and the opponent varied: Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, NC State and North Carolina.

That game against NC State on Jan. 24, 2021, was interesting. Because of scheduling due to the pandemic, the Hokies played the Wolfpack twice in the span of four days. They led by 12 with five minutes remaining in Reynolds Coliseum on Sunday before losing, but they bounced back against the No. 2 team in the country later that week in an 83-71 overtime win in Cassell Coliseum, the school’s second-ever top-five win.

...