Dave Bliss hit a bank shot with four-tenths of a second left in overtime and Georgia survived to play another day with a 97-95 win over Ole Miss in the first round of the SEC tournament late Thursday night at the Georgia Dome.

"There was no doubt in our minds," Georgia's Sundiata Gaines said with a grin. "We knew they were going to come out and play hard but we knew we were, too."

Ben Gray / AJC (ENLARGE)

Georgia's Billy Humphrey (right) battles David Huertas of Ole Miss for rebound.

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The victory gives hope to the Bulldogs (14-16), who entered as the No. 6 seed from the Eastern Division. With a win over Kentucky in tonight's 9:45 p.m. quarterfinal they could actually give serious thought to postseason play.

It also takes a little pressure off Georgia coach Dennis Felton. Athletics director Damon Evans has said all along he will evaluate Felton's status as Georgia's coach at the end of the season.

There will definitely be postseason play for Ole Miss (21-10) but it likely won't be in the NCAA tournament. The Rebels exited non-conference play with a 15-0 record but have gone 7-10 in the SEC.

The Bulldogs tried to lose it. Twice they fouled Ole Miss players in the act of shooting 3-pointers and the Rebels made all six free throws, the first three to send the game to overtime and the next set to force the exciting ending.

Bliss who finished with nine points and a career-best six blocks, received the ball from a streaking Corey Butler about 10 feet from the basket to the right side of the lane and just beat the buzzer with a quick-release, low-arcing bank shot.

"The play was designed to get the ball into Yata [Sundiata Gaines] but two of their guys were on Yata and the ball ended up with Corey Butler," Bliss said. "He was pretty open and I just backed up a little to get some space, and he hit me with a good pass."

Terrance Woodbury led the Bulldogs with a career-high 25 points and Gaines had 22, including 11 on 13 free throws. Junior Billy Humphrey made six free throws in the last minute of regulation and then two more in overtime to finish with 19 points.

The Bulldogs, who came in shooting 67 percent on free throws, were 26 of 32 from the foul line in the game.

"It was gratifying to see so many of our players step up and make plays at critical times of the game," Felton said. "But Ole Miss just wouldn't go away."

"It was clutch," said Gaines, whose free throws all came after halftime.

Bliss converted a three-point play to give Georgia its first lead in overtime, 91-90, at the 1:23 mark.

After Zach Graham missed a layup, the Rebels got the rebound and David Huertas converted it into a 3-point basket to get within two with 27 seconds left. Less than 10 seconds later Chris Warren scored on an uncontested layup to make it 83-81 with 18.5 seconds to go.

Gaines made just one of his two free throws on the subsequent possession and the Bulldogs thought Ole Miss interfered with him or committed a lane violation on the miss, which occurred at the 0:15.5 mark.

It proved critical. Humphrey fouled Huertas in the act of shooting a 3-pointer and Huertas made all three foul shots to tie the game at 84 with 7.1 seconds remaining.

Woodbury failed to get off his 3-point attempt before the final horn and, at 12:15 a.m. the game went to overtime.