Georgia Tech survives at home

North Carolina A&T wasn't supposed to make Georgia Tech sweat late in the game, but that's what happened.

The Yellow Jackets and Aggies were tied at 45 with less than four minutes left, but Georgia Tech took a slight lead and held on for a 59-52 win Wednesday night in non-conference men's basketball.

Georgia Tech improved to 8-4 while North Carolina A&T fell to 1-12.

The Yellow Jackets trailed 45-41 for nearly four minutes, and finally went ahead on Quinton Stephens' jumper with 3:34 left.

The Yellow Jackets couldn't pull away after the surge, and the Aggies were quickly back within two possessions for most of the rest of the way, but they had trouble scoring once the Yellow Jackets took the lead.

Tadric Jackson, Ben Lammers and Kellen McCormick each had 12 points for Georgia Tech, while Stephens had a team-high 10 rebounds. Josh Heath had five assists.

Sam Hunt had a game-high 20 points for the Aggies, who shot only 32.7 percent from the floor. The Yellow Jackets were good 39.6 percent of the time, and were outrebounded 35-32 and had one more turnover.

Georgia Tech led only 26-23 at halftime over a team that lost to the Yellow Jackets by seven points in 2013. The visitors took the lead with 15:10 left in the second half and were up by six at the 13:15 mark, 36-30.

The Yellow Jackets have another opponent from that state coming to town on Saturday when North Carolina visits for a noon game at McCamish Pavilion.

This story was originally published December 28, 2016 at 9:58 PM with the headline "Georgia Tech survives at home."