During his postgame press conference, head coach Mike White was asked to sum up why Georgia was playing its best basketball in recent memory.

He responded with one word - confidence.

Take Wednesday’s 76-66 win over Arkansas, for example.

“I told our guys after the game; we didn’t really flinch. This is the fifth or sixth game like that, where games can go the other way if your body language is a little bit different when you’ve got guys looking around saying, ‘Oh my goodness, we’re not supposed to win this one,'" White said. “It’s not who’s going to step up and hit a shot for us. But this team has been pretty good in that regard. I don’t know where we’ll finish, but we’re getting better. I don’t always like the way we’re executing, I don’t always love our shot selection, but I like our level of confidence right now.”

As he should.

Wednesday night’s win was the 10th straight for Georgia, matching the fourth-longest such streak in school history, dating back to the 1930-1931 season.

The Bulldogs (12-3, 2-0) also boast the 10th-longest active streak among Power Conference programs. Georgia is also 2-0 in the conference for the first time since the 2013-2014 campaign and enters Saturday’s game against 5th-ranked Tennessee as one of the nation’s hottest teams.

Not bad for a program that was picked to finish 13th out of 14 schools in the preseason conference poll.

“We’ve worked so hard,” said senior guard Justin Hill, who led the Bulldogs with a season-high 19 points and just one turnover in 24 minutes of play. “We expected this. Even when nobody believed in us, we know what we have and we know what we bring day in and day out.”

Fellow senior Noah Thomasson agreed.

“I said at SEC Media Days that we try not to look at that stuff,” Thomasson said. “This was a brand new team. Nobody knew what we had in our locker room. We still try not to look at the standings, whether we’re 2-0 or 0-2. It’s take one day at a time and get ready to play.”

For the second time this year, the Bulldogs never trailed. Arkansas closed within five early in the second half, only to have Thomasson push the lead back to 11 on two consecutive three-pointers.

But unlike last week when the Razorbacks fell at home by 32 to Auburn, Arkansas would not go away, and trailed by just three points with 4:39 left.

Jabri Abdur-Rahim made sure that was as close as the Razorbacks (9-6, 0-2) would get.

After missing his first seven three-point attempts, Abdur-Rahim connected on one from the wing to push Georgia’s lead back to six.

Another three–this one by Silas Demary Jr.–extended the margin to 72-64 with 1:03 on the clock, essentially icing the game.

Thomasson had 15 points for the Bulldogs, while RJ Melendez chipped in with 15.

Georgia’s bench also outscored the Razorbacks, 40-19.

“Our bench has been great with production, both offensively and defensively,” White said. “With Jabri, in terms of our team’s level of offensive resolve, he goes 1 of something, whatever he went three, that one he made was a loud shot, that was a huge shot.”

Georgia jumped out to a 16-9 lead to start the game.

The Razorbacks would climb to within one, only to see the Bulldogs respond with a 12-0 run, a spurt that included a pair of three-pointers by Hill and Thomasson with 4:57 on the clock.

Moments later, Blue Cain brought the crowd of 7,820 to its feet with a transition dunk, pushing the advantage to 13.

Hill, who finished with 11 first-half points, closed the scoring for the Bulldogs with a short jumper before a pair of free throws by Melendez sent the Bulldogs into the locker room up 34-24.

Boxscore

• The Bulldogs’ 10-point halftime lead, 34-24, marks the third time in the last three seasons Georgia’s built at least a 10-point halftime lead in conference play.

• Georgia’s win on Wednesday night marks its first win over Arkansas since its 99-89 victory on Feb. 29, 2020.

• The Bulldogs are 10-0 inside Stegeman Coliseum this season and 23-4 in Mike White’s two seasons at the helm of the program.

• Noah Thomasson scored 15 points, marking the sixth time in the last seven games he’s reached double-digit scoring and the 59th time in his career.

• Georgia returns to action on Saturday at noon when the Bulldogs host No. 5 Tennessee.