For those still having their doubts about Georgia’s undefeated start, Saturday night’s easy 83-68 win over Cincinnati should qualify as a bit of an eye-opener.

After all, the Bearcats have appeared in the past nine NCAA Tournaments, and featured the kind of big, physical front line that the Bulldogs will see once SEC play starts next week.

However, against Georgia-at least on this night-it did not matter as Tom Crean’s squad grabbed a 23-point first-half lead, and despite some early second-half scuffles, regrouped to win its sixth straight to open a season for the first time since the program’s 1982-1983 Final Four team.

“You want the honest truth? I was scared to death,” said Crean, whose Bulldogs upended a Bearcat squad that went 6-foot-8, 6-10 and 7-1 across its starting front line.

“We hadn’t played a team like this and we’ve been through games, but we certainly knew the competitiveness, the strength, the length, and how good they are was definitely going to be a test,” he said. “I was really, really proud of their effort.”

For graduate transfer Justin Kier was very matter of fact when asked what the victory over the Bearcats (2-4) does for the current Georgia squad.

“It shows that we can compete,” said Kier, who tied his season high with 18 points. “I know there was some backlash from people thinking we were not going to be as physical. Cincinnati is very physical; they’ve got some big guys in the paint, but we got ready, we worked really hard for this, to show that despite the fact we may be undersized, we can be physical.”

Getting Toumani Camara back after missing last week’s game against Samford was also a big deal for Georgia, which led by as many as 25 points with 2:32 left to play.

The sophomore picked up his second double-double of the season, scoring a career-high 18 points on 7 of 10 shooting with 10 rebounds. Tye Fagan added 17 points and nine rebounds, with Sahvir Wheeler chipping in with 12 points and seven assists.

“Every game our confidence is going higher and higher,” Camara said. “Everybody, the coaching staff, everybody, did a great job getting us ready to play tonight.”

Up by 23 at the half, Georgia saw the Bearcats claw back within 12 points with just over 11 minutes left before re-asserting and were never threatened the rest of the night.

“I was just happy with the way we competed, I was happy with the way that we scored,” Crean said. “They really rose to the level of the competition, and it wasn’t us just matching their energy and toughness, we brought our energy.”

That was definitely evident late in the first half when Georgia broke open what was just a one-point advantage with 8:26 left to go in the locker room up by 23.

A 20-2 run did the trick for the Bulldogs, who scored the final 15 points over the final 4:26.

Boxscore

Sophomore Toumani Camara was back in action Saturday after missing last week’s game against Samford with what was described as a lower back injury.

“I think what we showed is these guys feel, the better players have got to feel impacted by, inspired by, and they’ve got to feel safe with somebody like Toumani on the floor,” Crean said. “Tonight, Toumani showed that. We certainly missed him last week, there’s no doubt about that.”

…Meanwhile, junior Mikal Starks did not dress out for Saturday’s game due to a thigh bruise.

• While a member of George Mason, Kier scored six points in a game against Cincinnati in 2018. His 18 points tonight tied a career-high with the Bulldogs.

• Fagan posted his fourth double-digit game of the season and seventh of his career.

• Wheeler scored in the double-digits in tonight’s game for the fifth time this season and the 16th of his career.

• Freshman Josh Taylor had his first block as a Bulldog against the Bearcats.

• Sophomore Tyron McMillan snatched his first assisted dawned in The Red and Black in tonight’s game.

.• Georgia came into tonight’s game leading the SEC in steals with a total of 47 and averaging 9.4 per game. The Bulldog’s totaled 10 steals against the Bearcats in tonight’s game.

Georgia returns to action Tuesday night when the Bulldogs host Northeastern at 7 p.m. It will be the final non-conference game before Georgia entertains Mississippi State on Dec. 30.