Lightning struck again for Georgia on Saturday night.

For the second time in five days, the Bulldogs welcomed a top-25 team to Stegeman Coliseum on Saturday night. Once again, Georgia (14-2, 2-1 SEC) came out on top, taking down No. 17 Oklahoma (13-3, 0-3) by a score of 72-62.

“Shoot-around was okay today, so the handling of success from the other day I thought was good, not great,” head coach Mike White said after the game. “If you want to be in the upper half of this league, you’ve got to respond to negativity as we’ve talked about and positivity. Pretty good, but not great. Got to be better there… I loved our halftime response, though. I thought we had some really good individual responses as well throughout the game. Played with a lot of toughness, especially defensively down the stretch.”

The win marks the first time Georgia has defeated ranked opponents in back-to-back games since beating No. 25 Kentucky and No. 21 LSU in 2007.

The Bulldogs showed no early signs of a hangover from Tuesday night’s win over No. 6 Kentucky. Georgia jumped out to an early 17-7 lead highlighted by a thunderous slam from sophomore guard Silas Demary Jr.

“That was amazing. That’s going to be top 10 tonight,” freshman forward Asa Newell said. “He really has sneaky bounce. For him just to do that and turn the corner just brings a lot of energy to us.”

The lead stood at 19-10 with 11:46 left in the first half. Oklahoma then closed the half on a 26-14 run to take a 36-33 lead into halftime.

Georgia shot 44 percent in the first half and 1-of-9 on 3-pointers. The Bulldogs also had nine turnovers to just four assists.

“The coaches didn’t say anything to us. They let us handle it,” freshman forward Somto Cyril said. “We know who we are. We know what we can do. We just talked to each other on how to handle the adversity.”

Georgia scored the first six points of the second period to take a three-point lead. The Bulldogs then took the lead for good at the 10:36 mark, using four runs of at least 5-0 to keep the Sooners at bay.

The Bulldogs used second-half contributions from a pair of bench players to get the job done.

Dakota Leffew poured in 12 second-half points. Reserve forward Justin Abson came in for six minutes and contributed four points, two rebounds, and a block.

“He was a huge get for us out of the portal. I mean, we were fired up, you know, when he committed to us,” White said. “He’s got as good a feel and basketball IQ, temperament, as anyone on our team. Not surprising what he did offensively. I mean, he’s able to block a shot too, which he did a lot, you know, in the Sun Belt these last couple years. But just a winning player, a character guy, always ready.”

The Bulldogs rode their defense down the stretch. Oklahoma shot just 31 percent in the second half, scoring only 26 points. Georgia outscored the Sooners 39-26 in the final 20 minutes.

The key point came when the Bulldogs went on a 10-2 run over a period of just over four minutes, taking a 63-54 lead with 4:26 left.

“Late in the game we were able to be switchable with Asa at the five,” White said. “Those last few possessions, playing four guards. Silas Demary, I think, was just really good from the tip. For 40 minutes defensively was fantastic. We got good speed and length in the backcourt. We were pretty dialed in with guarding the bounce. They had some deep-paint touches that we were able to alter and block, of course, with the length that we’ve got at the rim. Allowed too much rhythm, three attempts from their shooters.”

Georgia gets no reward for its recent success. Its next contest is a Tuesday road trip to Tennessee, currently ranked No. 1 in the country. The Bulldogs then return home to face No. 2 Auburn next Saturday.

With that slate ahead, White knows there is no time to celebrate an acheivement that Georgia hasn’t seen in nearly two decades.

“The response for a young team after beating No. 6, it was pretty good,” White said. “It needs to be great, you know? Coming into this week, it’s got to be great.”

– Georgia is now 3-2 against ranked teams this season after being 0-5 against ranked opponents last season. This is the first time Georgia has three wins against ranked opponents in a season since 2017-18.

– The Bulldogs had eight blocks against Oklahoma, its most in a conference game under White.

– Newell scored in double-digits for the 15th time in 16 games.

– Half of Georgia’s 72 points came in the paint.

– Demary led the team in rebounds (8), assists (4), and steals (3).

– Georgia held Oklahoma to season-lows in points (62), field goal percentage (38.1 percent), and 3-point percentage (25.9 percent).

– Georgia out-rebounded Oklahoma 40-32, the 14th time this season the Bulldogs have beaten their opponent on the glass.