ATLANTA -- Freshman Josh Okogie scored 26 points to lead Georgia Tech to a 75-63 upset win over No. 9 North Carolina on Saturday at McCamish Pavilion.
Okogie shot 7-for-14 from the field and made 11 of 13 free throws to go with five rebounds and three assists for the Yellow Jackets, who snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Tar Heels.
Georgia Tech (9-4, 1-0 ACC) also got 15 points from Josh Heath and 11 points each from Quinton Stephens and Ben Lammers, who also had 11 rebounds. It was Georgia Tech's first win over a ranked team since beating Notre Dame a year ago.
Justin Jackson scored 16 points on 6-for-17 shooting to lead the Tar Heels (12-3, 0-1 ACC). Nate Britt added 13 points while Kennedy Meeks had a game-high 14 rebounds.
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Georgia Tech took the lead with 11:59 left in the second half on a pair of free throws by Okogie and never trailed again.
There were several key moments, but none bigger than a long 3-pointer that Heath made with 7:48 left to give the Yellow Jackets a 53-49 lead.
Georgia Tech was 17 of 25 at the line in the second half to help prevent any comeback.
The Tar Heels came into the game averaging 89.6 points, but wound up with their lowest output of the season against a Georgia Tech team that is the most inexperienced in the country and picked to finish 14th in the conference
Georgia Tech hung around through the first half and limited North Carolina to 33.3 percent shooting from the field, its worst first-half performance of the season. The Yellow Jackets led by three points four times in the first half, the final time at the 10:15 mark when they went ahead 23-20 on a Tadric Jackson layup.
The Tar Heels went ahead when Luke Maye scored on a put-back with 8:03 left in the half. North Carolina led by as many as five, taking a 32-27 lead on Britt's layup, but couldn't shake the Yellow Jackets and led 32-29 at halftime.
NOTES: North Carolina plays at Clemson on Tuesday night. It will be only the 10th time that UNC has opened league play with consecutive road games, the last coming in 2003. ... Georgia Tech is at Duke on Wednesday, the second of three consecutive top-10 teams it will face to open the ACC schedule. Georgia Tech has never played three straight games against teams in the top 10.
