Photos by Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Virginia's Sylven Landesberg (15) slams the ball in front of Virginia Tech's Cheick Diakite during the first half of Wednesday's game at John Paul Jones Arena.

Virginia Tech's A.D. Vassallo (left) is pressured by Virginia's Calvin Baker (4), Assane Sene (5) and Sylven Landesberg during the first half of Wednesday's ACC men's basketball game at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville.

Virginia's Jeff Jones (23) and Assane Sene celebrate following the Cavaliers' win over Virginia Tech on Wednesday night.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Once Virginia lost eight games in a row, the spoiler role was all the Cavaliers had left.

Too bad for UVa, the academy doesn't award an Oscar in that category.

Three days after snapping their longest losing streak in 10 days, the Cavaliers continued to take out their frustration Wednesday in a 75-61 victory over Virginia Tech.

Virginia's first two ACC wins had come in overtime, including an 85-81 triumph Sunday, but the Cavaliers (9-13, 3-8 ACC) built a 19-point second-half lead Wednesday, and the Hokies could get no closer than eight over the final seven minutes.

With a chance to move into a second-place tie in the ACC, Tech (16-8, 6-5) fell all the way to seventh.

"Things are different when we play Virginia Tech," said UVa junior Calvin Baker, who was 6-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final 3:19.

"On campus all day, that's all you hear: 'We're coming to the game. Beat the Hokies.'

"We don't mind knocking teams out of the NCAA tournament, if that's what happens, but we just try to get better every day. We're in the bottom half of the league, so any game we win, it's going to be an upset."

The Hokies had won the last three games in the series and four of the last five but were without sophomore post man Jeff Allen, suspended for one game after making an obscene gesture Saturday at Maryland.

Allen had failed to score from the field in an earlier Tech-UVa game, but teammates Malcolm Delaney and A.D. Vassallo had combined for 53 points in a 78-75 Tech win in Blacksburg.

Vassallo had a game-high 21 points Wednesday, but Delaney missed all five of his 3-point attempts and finished with 11 points and five turnovers.

"He's a good shooter," Tech coach Seth Greenberg said.

"It's not the shooting touch, He missed shots. Shoot, Dwyane Wade misses shots. He hasn't lost it. It's not like he's put it somewhere in his room and he's going to be looking around all night to find it."

Delaney attempted only two shots during a first half that ended with the Cavaliers ahead 39-29.

"I told him he needed to be more aggressive," Greenberg said. "We've got to get him the ball sooner. We've got to pass the ball better. With Jeff out, I think it's easier to push out an extra defender on him. Face it, you've got A.D. and Malcolm and they're playing that 3-2 zone. It's pretty easy to mark 'em."

As a team, the Hokies shot 36.7 percent from the field, compared to 43.9 percent for Virginia. The Cavaliers had a 38-37 rebounding edge and committed only 10 turnovers.

"We won the game the way I've tried to have the game played since I've been here," UVa coach Dave Leitao said.

"That's defense, rebounding and getting out on the break, [with] timely offense."

UVa freshman Sylven Landesberg made only six of 17 shots from the field but finished with 19 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Jamil Tucker scored 13 points and Mike Scott added 10 as UVa's bench, composed of several former starters, outscored Tech's reserves 32-3.

Five of Landesberg's assists came during the first half, the last after he had let the shot clock run down, then fed 6-foot-11 Tunji Soroye for a layup that capped a 10-0 run.

Leitao and Greenberg used the same word, "huge," to describe the final 3:14 of the first half. Soroye had five of his season-high six points during that sequence.

"We've had this watershed moment, and he's been part of that," Leitao said of his seldom-used fifth-year senior.

Greenberg, whose Hokies entered the game as 1¹₂-point favorites, figured that Virginia would be energized by the victory over Clemson.

"I don't think they would have gotten on the loudspeaker after the game and said, 'Well, we lost tonight, but stick with us and please come back on Wednesday,'" Greenberg said.

"Their win gave them some momentum. We played two games on the road and it's hard to win on the road in this league.

"You've got to be really, really good and tonight we weren't really, really good."

Virginia Tech MP FG FT R A F PT

Thompson 33 3-7 4-6 2 1 5 10

Vassallo 34 8-18 3-3 8 1 2 21

Diakite 28 4-5 1-2 9 0 3 9

Hudson 24 3-9 0-0 3 1 1 7

Delaney 40 3-13 5-6 3 5 3 11

Bell 10 1-2 0-0 2 0 4 3

Thorns 15 0-3 0-0 2 2 2 0

Davila 9 0-2 0-0 3 0 3 0

Witcher 7 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 200 22-60 13-17 37 10 23 61

Virginia MP FG FT R A F PT

Tat 7 1-1 0-0 0 0 1 2

Sene 22 2-4 0-0 4 0 2 4

Baker 28 2-7 6-6 2 2 3 10

Landesberg 38 6-17 6-8 9 6 1 19

Jones 26 3-6 0-0 1 1 2 8

Tucker 28 4-6 2-2 9 2 2 13

Zeglinski 28 1-8 0-0 3 6 1 3

Soroye 7 2-2 2-4 2 0 3 6

Sherrill 0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Scott 16 4-6 2-4 4 1 3 10

Totals 200 25-57 18-24 38 18 18 75

Rebounds include team rebounds.

Score by periods:

Virginia Tech 29 32 -- 61

Virginia 39 36 -- 75

3-point goals: Virginia Tech 4-19 (Vassallo 2-6, Bell 1-1, Hudson 1-5, Thorns 0-2, Delaney 0-5), Virginia 7-18 (Tucker 3-5, Jones 2-5, Landesberg 1-2, Zeglinski 1-4, Baker 0-2).

Turnovers: Virginia Tech 13 (Delaney 5), Virginia 10 (Zeglinski 3).

Blocked shots: Virginia Tech 5 (Vassallo 3), Virginia 3 (Sene 2).

Steals: Virginia Tech 5 (Delaney 2), Virginia 3 (Zeglinski 2).

Officials: Wood, Clinton, Ayers.

Attendance: 11,174.