Junior Michael Devoe’s 3-pointer with 4:20 to go in the game not only made him the 46th 1,000-point scorer in Georgia Tech men’s basketball history, but it also gave the Yellow Jackets the lead for good in a gritty 71-65 triumph over visiting Pitt on Sunday afternoon at McCamish Pavilion.

Playing its third game in 96 hours (compared to Pitt, which was playing its first contest in eight days), Georgia Tech (10-8, 6-6 ACC) led by nine points at halftime and extended the advantage to as many as 11 in the second half. However, Pitt (9-7, 5-6 ACC) used a 9-0 run to knot the score at 55-55 on a run-out layup by Xavier Johnson with 4:36 remaining.

On Tech’s ensuing possession, Devoe hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key and the Jackets regained a 58-55 advantage. Georgia Tech would never relinquish the lead, outscoring the Panthers 16-10 down the stretch. Devoe scored nine of his 13 points in the final 4:20 of the game and added a huge steal with 1:35 to go. Devoe’s swipe of Pitt’s Abdoul Karim Coulibaly led to a 3-pointer by Bubba Parham that stretched the Jackets’ lead to six points at 65-59 with just 80 seconds remaining.

Three Yellow Jackets scored in double-figures (Moses Wright – 24, Devoe – 13 and Jose Alvarado – 12), but the story of the game for Tech was the defensive effort of junior forward Khalid Moore, who limited Pitt’s Justin Champagnie, the Atlantic Coast Conference’s leading scorer and rebounder coming into the day, to just six shot attempts and 13 points. Champagnie’s 13 points was just two-thirds of his league-leading 19.2-point average, and his six rebounds were little more than half.

Moore played a season-high 38 minutes while shadowing Champagnie and added seven points on 2-of-3 shooting from the field and 2-of-2 from the free-throw line.

Wright’s seventh 20-point game of the season came on 9-of-13 shooting from the floor and 5-of-6 from the line. Alvarado, Georgia Tech’s 6-foot point guard, led the team in rebounding with seven while adding five assists and a pair of steals.

As a team, the Yellow Jackets were outshot from the field (51%-47%) and 3-point range (39%-33%) but sank 21-of-23 free throws (91.3%), compared to Pitt , which made just eight of its 15 free throws (53.3%).

Georgia Tech gets its first two-day break in a week before it hosts Boston College for a noon tipoff on Wednesday at McCamish Pavilion. The weekday mid-day special will be televised live on the ACC Network.