With one game left in the regular season, Virginia is the surprise leader of the Atlantic Coast Conference after Sean Singletary scored 17 points and the Cavaliers beat Virginia Tech 69-56 Thursday night.

Virginia players, from right, Sean Singletary (44) Mamadi Diane (24) and Tunji Soroye (21) celebrate their 69-56 win over Virginia Tech in a college basketball game, in Charlottesville, Va. Thursday, March 1, 2007. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

The Cavaliers (20-8, 11-4), picked to finish eighth in the preseason, wound up 8-0 in league play at their new John Paul Jones Arena and took a one-game lead over the Hokies, Boston College and No. 8 North Carolina, which lost at Georgia Tech.

The Cavaliers need only to win their regular-season finale at Wake Forest on Saturday to claim their first ACC title since 1995.

"It means we've come a long way," Singletary said of the opportunity few thought Virginia could achieve. "If we can get this win Saturday, it will just be icing on the cake."

Losing consecutive road games in the conference for the first time in three years, the eighth-ranked Tar Heels (24-6, 10-5) missed a chance to hold onto a share of first place.

"We were just so bad defensively in the first half, but I still go back and say that just because you're open doesn't mean you make shots, and they made shots," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "At halftime, I felt we were extremely lucky to be down seven."

North Carolina will finish its regular season this weekend when it hosts No. 18 Duke.

"Hopefully, this will get us fired up for the Duke game," Tar Heels guard Marcus Ginyard said. "I mean, that's what everybody wants."

In Charlottesville, J.R. Reynolds and Mamadi Diane added 13 points each for the Cavaliers.

"Today the key was just playing hard and playing defense more than anything," said Diane, who had managed just 10 points total in his last three games. "The offense just came."

The win provided a bit of redemption for Virginia, which was blown out 84-57 by the Hokies three weeks earlier.

Coach Dave Leitao said he shied away from the revenge angle in talking to his team and anyone else that would listen this week, but "obviously it lived in their mind-set, it lived in their spirit and they brought in a very workmanlike atmosphere today," he said.