RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- The VCU Rams men's basketball team beat Dayton 70-62 in the Atlantic 10 Tournament Championship game on Sunday afternoon, bringing home their second title in as many years. With the win, VCU will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament in Phil Martelli Jr.'s first y ear as the Rams' head coach. After handling Duquesne in the quarterfinals on Friday and the St. Joseph's Hawks in the semifinals on Saturday, VCU punched its ticket to its fourth consecutive A10 tournament championship. No. 4 seed Dayton beat No. 1 seed St. Louis on a buzzer beater in the semifinals to punch its ticket to the championship, a rematch of the 2023 title game. From the first buzzer on Sunday afternoon, VCU controlled the floor as A10 rookie of the year Nyk Lewis made a pullup three-point jumper to get the scoring started. From there, the Rams' defense forced Dayton to stretch the shot clock and to turn the ball over which proved to be costly. After holding the Flyers to just 33% shooting from the field in the first half, VCU took a 40-25 lead headed into the break. Despite making offensive adjustments in the second half, the Flyers could not come within seven points of the Rams. The Black and Gold only shot 26% from the field in the final 20 minutes, but went 13-19 from the charity stripe to stay ahead. VCU will now wait to find out who their NCAA tournament opponent will be as the selection show begins on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. ...read more read less