Georgia basketball stayed unbeaten, but it wasn’t pretty.

The Bulldogs (5-0) beat Samford (2-2) 79-75 in Stegeman Coliseum on Saturday night, recording what coach Tom Crean referred to as “a character win.”

Georgia trailed throughout nearly all the game, leading for only 48 seconds

Transfer Justin Kier led Georgia with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting, while Tye Fagan and Sahvir Wheeler had 15 points apiece.

Samford senior Myron Gordon led his team with 29 points off the bench.

Georgia trailed by as many as 13 points in the first half before battling back to 35-31 at intermission.

“I just think this group of guys, we know what it takes to win,” Wheeler told GeorgiaDogs.com. “We tried it, not necessarily our own way, but we tried last year, we were a little defiant.

“I think this year we’ve really bought into what Coach Crean says.”

The Bulldogs were playing without power forward Toumani Camara, who Crean said has a lower-body injury

“We missed Toumani Camara tonight, big time,” Crean said. “We had some other guys who were banged up that were playing through that, some sickness. We just had to find a way to win.”

The 5-0 mark represents Georgia’s best start to a season since the 2000-01 campaign.

The Bulldogs are scheduled to return to action at 8 p.m. next Saturday against Cincinnati in Stegeman Coliseum.

“We have to get better this week,” Crean said. “As I just said to them, we have to become physical, more aggressive. We didn’t do a great job on the 50-50 balls tonight—at times, they were more aggressive on those.”

The Bearcats (2-2) dropped a 65-56 decision to Tennessee in Knoxville on Saturday.

/Dawgnation)