Belief is a word that Georgia basketball coach Mike White preaches to his team every day.

Following Saturday’s 75-68 win over Kentucky before a sold-out Stegeman Coliseum crowd of 10,376, there’s a bit more of that going around.

“Team feel is a real thing, and today I think we came with a different type of feel, a different kind of energy when we walked into shoot-around,” junior guard Kario Oquendo said. “We just need to learn to keep that type of energy in every single game and not just a game that we’re hyped up for.”

Energy was certainly not a problem for the Bulldogs, who had dropped six of their previous seven games.

Georgia attacked the Wildcats both offensively and defensively, holding Kentucky to a mere 38.5 percent from the field (25 of 65) and winning the battle in the paint with a 32-26 scoring edge.

Last month in Lexington, Kentucky outscored the Bulldogs in the paint 38-30, a fact due largely to the preseason SEC Player of the Year, Oscar Tshiebwe, who scored 37 points and pulled down 24 rebounds in that earlier meeting.

Saturday, Tshiebwe scored 20 points and had 14 rebounds; he was not nearly the factor this time around.

“We had a couple of high-low looks that we didn’t deliver, but we had a couple of pretty creative ones off some middle pick and rolls,” White said. “We had a bunch of paint touches off drives, too. Protecting the paint was obviously huge, too. It gives you a better chance, in our opinion, to slow down Oscar, and hopefully slow down their ability on the offensive glass. We did a much better job than we did up there.”

Give Bulldog center Braelen Bridges a big tip of the cap for helping Georgia win the battle down low.

“The biggest factor of the game was Braelen Bridges. He played as hard as he’s played all year,” White said. “He was very good. I’m really proud of him, and his teammates were appreciative. He’s had bigger scoring and rebounding numbers, but when you look down and see he was plus-22 today, he made a lot of winning plays.”

Bridges finished with 12 points, but it was his ability to match Tshiebwe’s physicality that helped enable teammates like Oquendo and Justin Hill to have success driving the ball inside on the bigger Wildcat team.

“We knew it was going to take the whole squad. We spent the whole game just picking each other up,” Bridges said. “We just wanted to make him work. He’s a pretty good player; just make him work for everything he gets, whether it’s post-ups, offensive rebounds, ball screens, just do what we can to try and wear him down.”

Oquendo led Georgia with 21 points, followed by Hill with 15 and Bridges with 12.

Kentucky (16-9, 7-5) played the game without former Bulldog Sahvir Wheeler and starter C.J. Fredrick, forcing the Wildcats to play just seven players the entire game.

Kentucky head coach John Calipari won't use that as an excuse.

“I know that will be said publicly and around the nation, ‘Oh, they had two guys out,’ no it won’t, but that’s okay," Calipari said. "Let me give Georgia credit. Mike (White) had them ready. Oquendo just went right at people’s shoulder and had 20 at the half, and we did what we do, we came back in the second half, and we were up four. My teams win that game. Now, what happened? We had a couple of guys out. So, would they have made a difference? Maybe, but give Georgia all the credit. They deserve it.”

Much like they did on Jan. 17 in Lexington, the Bulldogs put together one of their best first halves of the year.

Georgia started quickly, jumping out to an 11-5 lead after the Wildcats made just one of their first 14 shots, before a three by Antonio Reeves broke the Kentucky skid.

Kentucky would gain its first lead at 32-22 at the 6:08 mark, only to see the Bulldogs respond with a 10-2 run.

The Wildcats would draw back within four, but Oquendo closed out the opening stanza with back-to-back three-pointers to send Georgia into the locker room up by 10.

“You know, it’s been a tough stretch for us. You know, the environment at home has been great. Our record at home has been good, and we've played well at home. We had a couple that we didn’t quite take advantage of down the stretch, of course,” White said. “That’s the SEC. Right? That’s what it is, and to bounce back like this at home against a very good team is great for our guys. Our guys work and we were prepared.”

Boxscore

• Series Update: Kentucky maintains a heavy advantage in the all-time series, 131-28, despite the Bulldog win. Georgia has now won their last two matchups with Kentucky in Athens. The Bulldogs have won consecutive home games against the Wildcats for the first time since the 1988-89 and 1989-90 seasons.

• Team News: This afternoon’s starting five (Hill-Oquendo-Holt-Moncrieffe-Bridges) started their third consecutive game as a core. Terry Roberts returned to the court after his two-game absence.

• Breaking the Trend: Georgia’s 42 points at halftime tied the season high. Previously, the Bulldogs scored 42 points in the first half against UAB and the initial matchup with Kentucky, but lost both contests.

• Super Kario: Kario Oquendo recorded the 39th double-digit point game of his career and the 16th of the season. His 17 points in the first are the most by a Georgia player in a first half this season.

• Safe Hands: Georgia committed only 7 turnovers tonight, a season low.

• Busy on the Board: Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe tied his season high in rebounds this afternoon with 9. Georgia collected 37 boards as a team.

• Bench Boost: The Bulldogs’ bench contributed, outscoring their opponent’s bench, 21-1. On the season, Georgia’s bench has outscored opponents 588-409.

• Ingram Inches: With his three points this afternoon, Jailyn Ingram needs just 7 more points to reach the 1,500-mark. Ingram is one of four Bulldogs (Abdur-Rahim, Holt, and McBride) who have scored more than half of their points this season on 3-pointers

Georgia returns to action Tuesday when the Bulldogs host LSU.