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RALEIGH -- With his Wolfpack team trailing by 10 and under five minutes to play, N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe knew his team was in serious danger of its second straight home defeat.

But unlike Tuesday night's loss to Florida State, the Wolfpack dug in its heels and rallied to down Georgia Tech 76-71 in overtime at the RBC Center on Saturday afternoon.

After the Yellow Jackets reeled off 14 straight points to take a 64-54 lead with 4:40 left, Lowe challenged his team to match the Georgia Tech's aggressiveness.

"We had a timeout and I didn't talk about Xs and Os," Lowe said of the huddle. "Just go out and be tougher, period."

And the Wolfpack did.

State -- which was outscored 15-2 in the final five minutes against Florida State -- closed out the game on a 22-7 run, held Tech scoreless in the final 3:02 of regulation and received big performances from its starters and bench players alike.

Lowe made it clear he needed more from his veterans after the Florida State debacle and his thoroughbreds didn't disappoint.

Senior Ben McCauley had 18 points, 10 rebounds and six assists while junior Brandon Costner scored 22 points before fouling out with 3:08 left in overtime.

Senior Courtney Fells came up with the game-clinching steal when he stripped Lewis Clinch with the Pack up 74-71 with 10 seconds left. Junior reserve Dennis Horner, who came on for Fells, made 3-of-4 free throws in the final seven seconds to close out the game.

Horner's bucket and the foul on the possession before Fells' steal gave State its first overtime lead.

"This is a huge win for us," Horner said. "We knew we needed this because you can't start out 0-3 in the ACC &ellipses; we just had to win this game."

Trevor Ferguson added 11 points and his two 3-pointers in the final minute of the opening half pulled State to within a point (35-34) of the Yellow Jackets at intermission.

With the loss to Florida State still fresh on everyone's minds, McCauley stressed how important it was to not repeat the feat.

"We didn't want to go through that again," he said. "We let the fans and our coaches down last game &ellipses; let ourselves down. When you have home court you have to take advantage of it and we did tonight."

State (10-5, 1-2 ACC) responded to Lowe's challenge with a 10-1 spurt to cut it to 65-64 with 1:42 left on a reverse layup by McCauley.

Clinch, who scored a team-high 22 points for Georgia Tech, missed a 3 on the Yellow Jackets' ensuing possession but Iman Shumpert stole the ball from Costner.

Zachery Peacock hit two free throws with 38 seconds to go to give Tech a 67-64 lead, but Wolfpack guard Farnold Degand drove to the basket and converted a conventional 3-point play with 30 seconds left to tie the game.

Clinch's 3 missed at the buzzer to force overtime.

Lowe felt the key to the comeback was letting his players take control of the game on their own.

"I wasn't calling plays&ellipses;I wanted the guys to just get in the flow and start making reads."

The Wolfpack shot the ball well (43 percent) and the defensive effort limited Georgia Tech (9-8, 0-4) to 36-percent shooting. Play was ugly at times, as each team turned the ball over 22 times.

But the Pack's physicality wore down the Yellow Jackets in the end, as Paul Hewitt's team could not counter after their initial 14-0 run.

Lowe, meanwhile, couldn't be more pleased with the response after Tuesday night's meltdown.

"That was one of our best games in terms of just fighting till the end," he said. "When it got to overtime our guys were so confident. They were talking about how they were going to win this game and that's all you want."

GEORGIA TECH (9-8, 0-4)

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts

Clinch 38 6-15 0-0 0-2 2 3 18

Shumpert 42 6-13 8-10 1-6 4 4 22

Lawal 28 5-11 1-2 6-10 2 3 11

Peacock 38 1-7 4-4 4-8 1 3 6

Aminu 17 1-6 0-0 1-3 1 3 2

Miller 15 0-2 0-0 1-1 3 4 0

Foreman 4 1-2 0-0 1-1 0 2 2

Storrs 29 2-7 0-0 2-3 1 2 6

Sheehan 14 2-4 0-0 2-3 0 0 4

Totals 225 24-67 13-16 20-41 14 24 71

Percentages: FG .358, FT .813. 3-point goals: 10-18, .556 (Clinch 6-10, Shumpert 2-3, Storrs 2-4, Miller 0-1). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 5 (Sheehan 2, Lawal 2, Peacock). Turnovers: 22 (Shumpert 6, Peacock 5, Aminu 3, Lawal 3, Miller 3, Clinch 2). Steals: 13 (Shumpert 4, Miller 2, Aminu 2, Storrs, Lawal, Peacock, Clinch, Sheehan).

N.C. STATE (10-5, 1-2)

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts

Fells 34 2-6 0-0 0-6 1 2 4

Williams 22 1-3 2-2 0-1 1 2 4

Mays 22 0-1 0-0 2-4 2 3 0

Costner 36 7-16 5-6 1-7 3 5 22

McCauley 38 6-9 6-8 8-10 6 0 18

Degand 26 2-7 3-3 0-0 4 4 7

Ferguson 19 3-6 2-4 0-0 1 1 11

TSmith 8 1-3 0-0 0-1 0 1 2

Thomas 11 0-1 0-0 0-2 1 0 0

Horner 9 2-4 4-5 0-2 0 0 8

Totals 225 24-56 22-28 14-39 19 18 76

Percentages: FG .429, FT .786. 3-point goals: 6-16, .375 (Ferguson 3-5, Costner 3-7, Williams 0-1, Horner 0-1, Fells 0-2). Team rebounds: 6. Blocked shots: 6 (Costner 2, Williams, Thomas, McCauley, T.Smith). Turnovers: 22 (Mays 6, Costner 5, McCauley 3, Horner 2, Fells 2, Degand 2, Williams, Thomas). Steals: 10 (Williams 2, Degand 2, Mays 2, T.Smith, McCauley, Fells, Horner).

Georgia Tech 35 32 4 -- 71

N.C. State 34 33 9 -- 76

Officials--Karl Hess, Gary Maxwell, Tim Nestor. A--16,468.