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Aaron McFarling here from Blacksburg, where Virginia Tech has just defeated Wake Forest 80-58 to clinch no worse than a 9-7 record in the ACC and set up a huge game Sunday at Clemson.

Senior night was good to both departing Hokies, as Deron Washington had 22 points and 13 rebounds, finishing two points shy of a career high.

"Out of this world," Tech coach Seth Greenberg called Washington's performance.

Little-used Marcus Travis (Blacksburg High School) also played well. Given the start by Greenberg, Travis scored the first basket of the game on a wide-open layup, igniting a 17-3 run to start the game.

Travis said the play was not designed for anyone in particular. It was just the normal motion offense and his defender made the wrong move, so he took it hard to the basket.

Travis, a guard who hadn't played more than 3 minutes in any games this year, played 12 minutes, had two points, a rebound, three assists and two steals.

“I love basketball," Travis said. "Any day I can come in the gym and play for free – I can come in here any time I want to. It’s definitely worth it…It wasn’t even a matter of playing time. Just coming in here and being around everybody in the whole program has been really special.”

The Hokies took a 47-26 halftime lead and led by as many as 30 points in the second half. They had 15 assists in the first half -- more than two better than their season average per game.

“We’re just having fun now," freshman point guard Hank Thorns said. "We’re just playing. We’re not worrying about the ACC tournament or the NCAA tournament and stuff like that. We’re just having fun out there, and that’s what we’ve got to do to keep winning.”

Tech (18-11, 9-6) now has a four-game winning streak heading into the regular-season finale at Clemson. A win over the Tigers -- or a loss by Miami on Wednesday or Saturday -- would give the Hokies a first-round bye in the ACC tournament. More importantly, a win over the Tigers would give the NCAA selection committee a marquee victory to consider. As of now, Tech's got a strong conference mark and two wins against fading Maryland, but not much else to impress the committee.

You might recall last year's senior night was against Clemson. The Hokies lost that one by one point, denying themselves the top seed in the ACC tournament. Standout point guard Zabian Dowdell struggled mightily with turnovers early in that one -- and later admitted he was very nervous about his last home game -- but neither Washington nor Travis had that problem.

"I told the guys when before the game, when you talk about these seniors, Deron Washington, he came to Virginia Tech on a pipe dream," Greenberg said. "We hadn't had a winning season in the Big East. We were an 'if.' We were selling a vision.
"He helped create a little bit of a culture. He came to Virginia Tech when it really wasn't fashionable to come to Virginia Tech. He trusted us, and he bought in."

That's all for tonight. As usual, the intrepid Mark Berman will have his game story on this one in the paper and online bright and early Wednesday morning. I'll have a column centered on Marcus Travis, and what his performance showed about the the Tech program.

I really need a fancy sign-off line. Let's try this: Until they tip it again, this is Aaron McFarling, saying ... don't eat raw fish after midnight.

Naw, scrap that. Good night everyone.