SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Another big night from junior power forward Bonzie Colson, another big conference win for No. 21 Notre Dame.

Heading toward likely first team all-league honors, Colson erupted for 20 points and 11 rebounds for his league-leading 17th double-double as the Irish won their fifth consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference game, beating Georgia Tech 64-60 on Sunday at Purcell Pavilion.

The Irish (22-7, 11-5 ACC) moved into a three-way tie for second place with Florida State and Louisville.

Two years ago against Georgia Tech, Colson was popped in the nose and bloodied before getting his game in gear in a road win. Hit by the ball during a scramble for it in the first four minutes, Colson had his right contact lens knocked loose, which helped his focus.

A lot.

"It woke me up, got my juice flowing," Colson said. "It was time to ball out."

Colson went for seven straight points and 12 of 15 at one point simply by working. And hustling. And battling. He tipped it once, twice, three times before getting a flip shot to fall that gave the Irish a two-point lead.

Next time down, after making a steal, he dropped in a walk-in 3-pointer, then extended the Irish lead to seven with a tip-back of a Steve Vasturia miss.

"Just trying to be active, just trying to play with everything I've got," Colson said. "Just do what I do."

Tadric Jackson led the Yellow Jackets (16-13, 7-9) with 20 points. Josh Okogie contributed 14 points and 10 rebounds, Ben Lammers had 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Josh Heath added 12 points and nine boards.

Notre Dame came into the game having averaged 84.6 points its previous four games. The Irish then struggled to score against the Yellow Jackets -- again.

"One thing we have held our hat on is defense," Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner said. "Defense is about energy and effort and that's one thing we've been good at all year long."

Offensively, not so much. Georgia Tech had chances to get this one but couldn't make the big shot at the big moment.

"Our team's (offensive) margin for error is zero," Pastner said. "It's so hard to manufacture layups. When we miss layups, it takes days, years off my life."

Jackson's 3-pointer got Georgia Tech within three with 47.5 seconds left. The visitors got within two in the closing seconds. The nation's leading free-throw shooting team, Notre Dame scored its final eight points in the last 1:48 from the foul line.

Irish guard Matt Farrell connected on seven of eight free throws in that stretch.

"It's a weapon for us," Farrell said. "Send us to the line when we're ahead, it's going to be tough to beat us."

Notre Dame led by as many as 10 with 1:24 remaining.

Notre Dame scored the first five points, but that cushion didn't last, mainly because the Irish had no answers for Okogie. After going for only eight points in the teams' first meeting last month, Okogie got in a groove and scored nine of his 11 first-half points in the first 5:36.

NOTES: Georgia Tech hopes to finish .500 or better in ACC play for the first time since 2006-07, when it went 8-8. ... Freshman G Josh Okogie entered the final week of the regular season with a league-best four Freshman of the Week honors. ... Georgia Tech fell to 1-7 on the road in league play. The Yellow Jackets close the regular season at Syracuse on Saturday after a home game against Pitt on Tuesday. ... Press-row seating had spots for 14 NBA scouts from 11 teams. ... For the eighth consecutive matchup as ACC colleagues, a Notre Dame-Georgia Tech game was decided by eight points or fewer. Georgia Tech won the previous two, both in Atlanta, by a combined three points. ... Notre Dame drew its sixth sellout crowd of the season, all in ACC play. ... The Irish play host to Boston College on Wednesday.