UVa hopes to keep momentum going

Shortly after their upset win over Clemson on Sunday at John Paul Jones Arena, Virginia players — after they had finished all of the chest-bumping and all of the hooting and hollering that comes with snapping an eight-game losing streak — convened in their locker room.

“We said, ‘This doesn’t have to stop here,’” said UVa freshman Sammy Zeglinski. “From here, we just keep going forward. Now we know we can get these wins. We have a lot of confidence now.”

Virginia fans are hoping the surge of empowerment carries over to this evening when UVa hosts rival Virginia Tech.

Virginia (8-13, 2-8 ACC) will be looking to win two straight games for the first time since late December, when it posted consecutive victories over Hampton and Georgia Tech. The Wahoos will also be out to avenge a three-point loss to the Hokies on Jan. 10 in Blacksburg.

“It was an emotional game and definitely a game that we could have won,” Zeglinski recalled. “It kind of slipped out of our hands, but we’ll be ready this time. I think we’re a pretty different team and really know who we are now.”

You might say Zeglinski wasn’t 100 percent sure who he was following that first meeting with the Hokies. In the loss, he ran into a vicious screen by Tech’s Jeff Allen in the second half that left him a little bit woozy.

Virginia catches a big break tonight in that Allen — the Hokies’ third-leading scorer this season (14.5 ppg) — won’t be playing. He was suspended for one game by Virginia Tech athletic director Jim Weaver for making an obscene gesture during the team’s loss to Maryland on Saturday (which was caught by a television camera).

Suffice to say, Tech coach Seth Greenberg wasn’t very pleased with Allen’s actions — or his team’s performance against the Terrapins.

“I just don’t think we had the energy, the passion, the commitment to doing what you have to do to beat a team that’s as well-coached as Maryland on the road … they beat us in every facet of the game,” Greenberg said. “We’ve got to rebound from it and get ready to play a Virginia team that had a magnificent win this past weekend against an elite Clemson team.”

Virginia coach Dave Leitao is expecting the contest to be a tight one. After all, the last three matchups — all Virginia Tech wins — have been decided by three points or fewer or have gone to overtime.

“The Adrian Joseph shot to seal the win down there, the Deron Washington tip-in to win here (both last season) and the overtime again … one or two possessions makes for victory on either side,” said Leitao, referencing recent nail-biters, “and I think you need to prepare so that you put yourself in position where you can make those plays, especially late.”

Tonight, Virginia Tech (16-8, 6-4) will be looking to win its four straight game versus Virginia — something they haven’t done since the 1960s.

“It makes for good copy — it makes for a good story and it makes for good games,” said Leitao, when asked about the rivalry. “I think if you look at it semi-evenly over the course of one, two, five 10 years — you’re not going to win every single game.

“You want to, but if you have two teams that go at it in a lot of different ways, then the outcomes are going to be very, very close. You hope that more often than not, it falls in your favor, but the reality of it is, sometimes it [doesn’t].”

Virginia is taking solace in the fact it nearly overcame a 15-deficit to beat the Hokies in the Jan. 10 meeting.

“We made such a comeback,” said Virginia junior Jamil Tucker. “We know we can beat them.”

Zeglinski, who helped key the win over Clemson — he was 6 of 6 from the field for 15 points and also had six assists — can’t wait for tip-off.

“I think the crowd’s going to be just as good [as Sunday] with our rivals coming in,” he said. “It’s going to be a great game.”

Dunks

Virginia leads the all-time series, 78-50 … Virginia Tech is just one of two Division I teams to have had three players score 30 or more points in a game — Malcolm Delaney, A.D. Vassallo and Allen. … Leitao strongly hinted that he will go with the same starting lineup that he has used in the last three games — Sylven Landesberg, Calvin Baker, Jeff Jones, Solomon Tat and Assane Sene — even though Tat and Sene combined for just 10 minutes of playing time against Clemson. “I think it has to do with the fact that Tunji [Soroye’s] minutes have been getting better, not just more, but better, especially on the defensive end,” said Leitao, when asked about Sene’s decreased minutes.