Georgia dunks on doubters, but how real are these basketball Bulldogs?

ATHENS — Georgia basketball dunked on its doubters Saturday by taking down Auburn, 104-100, in overtime.

The No. 23-ranked Bulldogs improved to 13-1 overall with the win in the SEC opener against a battle-tested Auburn team.

But even more, Georgia validated the up-tempo style Coach Mike White has shifted to this season, and the transfer players he brought in to run it.

White, in his fourth season as UGA’s head coach, said as much about a game he said he’ll “remember forever.”

Georgia won’t have to wait long to have a shot at topping it and earning more validation, as a trip to play defending national champion Florida (7 p.m., Tuesday) is on deck.

The Bulldogs will travel to Gainesville with an edge, as winning the SEC opener against an Auburn program that had beaten UGA five times in a row and eight of the past 10 carries weight.

The victory essentially guarantees the Bulldogs will be ranked in the AP Top 25 for a third consecutive week for the first time in nearly 23 years, when a Jim Harrick-coached team was ranked the final 10 weeks of the regular season (peaking at No. 15 on Jan. 27, 2003).

More importantly, Georgia will improve its “NET” ranking, which is a metric used by the NCAA tournament selection committee when sorting out the 68-team field.

The Bulldogs made the NCAA tournament last year for the first time in 10 seasons, and the goal is to return and make March Madness an annual event.

Georgia had a No. 22 NET ranking entering the contest with the Tigers (9-5), despite a schedule that ranked 298th in the nation.

It was fair to be skeptical of the Bulldogs entering into conference play and look twice at the program leading the nation in scoring (99 points per game), fast-break points per game (27.5) and blocked shots per game (7.9), considering the caliber of competition.

But the numbers held up against Auburn: 104 points, 20 fast-break points and eight blocked shots.

This Tigers program, coming off four consecutive NCAA tourney appearances and a Final Four run last year, were picked to finish sixth in the SEC (UGA was forecast 14th) and were ranked No. 20 in the preseason AP Top 25 poll.

First-year Auburn coach Steven Pearl, who succeeded his father, Bruce, has a battle-tested team — albeit, at this time unranked — that’s faced the 21st most-difficult schedule in the nation.

Auburn’s poise showed in the final moments of regulation when, down four points, Keyshawn Hall leaned in on a 3-point attempt to draw a foul on Jeremiah Wilkinson with 0.7 seconds left.

Hall hit the first two free throws before purposely missing the third, allowing for a long rebound off the side of the rim to go into the hands of Kevin Overton, who hit a game-tying jumper at the buzzer.

Auburn celebrated the miraculous four-point play, filled with the new life of an overtime period, while White gathered his team to regroup.

The resiliency of this newly-formed Georgia basketball team featuring five transfers — including three who start — was about to be tested.

“Are we built for this, or are we not?” White said, noting the question of the moment as the overtime period got underway. “Our guys were terrific in overtime.”

Indeed, none better offensively than Wilkinson, who scored seven of his game-high 31 points in the overtime period.

Somto Cyril, a 6-foot-11, 240-pound sophomore, provided a wall on defense over the final five minutes, recording three of his five blocked shots in the overtime period.

White, typically cautious to voice too much optimism early in a season, spoke confidently about this Georgia team’s future after the win.

“It confirmed, honestly, our team is really competitive,” White said. “We’re very resilient. Jeremiah Wilkinson is extremely confident. Somto Cyril is an elite defensive player (and) we’ve got a really strong bench, we’ve got great depth,

“It’s just confirmation of all that.”

But it was just one game, and now No. 22 Florida (9-5, 0-1 SEC) is on deck, and the Gators are bringing a 13-game home win streak into the action.

Georgia has lost six in a row in Gainesville dating back to a 61-55 win over the Gators on March 2, 2019 — the fourth of seven seasons White coached the Florida program before leaving to take the UGA job.

White said the Bulldogs will need to play with confidence to maintain the momentum they’ve built.