As South Carolina built a big lead, Makayla Epps allowed herself a peek when she checked in for the first time in the second half.It wasn’t pretty, but Epps could only think of one way to react.”I looked up at the scoreboard once and I was like, ‘We’re down 20 and it can’t get (any) worse so just go,’ Epps said. ” ‘Fight to the finish.’ “When Epps came in with 15:09 left, UK trailed 53-32. Southeastern Conference-leading South Carolina had been dominant, turning an eight-point halftime lead into a comfortable margin with a 15-4 run. With no reason for the self-doubt natural for a freshman, Epps threw caution to the win and went on the attack. Within a minute, she hit a jumper. Later, she scored six straight points as UK showed signs of life and cut the South Carolina lead to 11 with 9:31 left. The Gamecocks, however, were too much on this night.”We ran into a really, really tough opponent that’s extremely talented, plays real hard,” Matthew Mitchell said. “They were tough defensively, tough offensively, really, really active on the boards and we got whipped tonight.”Riding an astounding 44-19 rebounding edge, the No. 4/6 Gamecocks (23-2, 11-1 SEC) took down No. 15/15 Kentucky (19-6, 7-5 SEC), 81-58. Aleighsa Welch had a double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds and South Carolina shot 52.6 percent for the game and 60 percent in the second half to erase any thoughts of a comeback.Epps, however, wouldn’t stop.”Coach Mitchell, four minutes to go at the last media timeout, he was like, ‘Just finish the game. Keep playing hard, keep playing hard,’ ” Epps said. “And that’s what I was trying to do.’ “Epps finished with a career-high 16 points, 14 of which came after halftime. She played point guard for much of her 15 second-half minutes, coping more effectively with South Carolina’s physical defense than any of her teammates.On a night that saw UK’s two-game win streak end and a bid at a second straight win over a top-10 team come up short, that was at least one reason to be encouraged.”She was able to use her size and strength to make some plays in transition that were available to us and I thought played with some good tempo offensively,” Mitchell said. “She’s a talented player and she’ll just keep getting better, but she had a really good night.”Now, Epps and the Wildcats go back to work. “You have to let go of this result and try to find out ways to address meaningful things that’ll actually impact the game,” Mitchell said. “So the score of this game will not impact Sunday’s game unless we come in tomorrow down and defeated and discouraged.”Sunday’s game won’t be an easy one, as UK travels to Texas A&M to face the only team that’s taken down South Carolina in SEC play. The good news is the Cats have some experience responding to losses.”We’ve been here before,” Epps said. “It’s not like it’s our first loss or (anything) like that. So we’ve been in this position before and we know what we’re capable of. All the players, all the coaches, we know what we’re capable of. So, like I said, we got Sunday to look forward to. We got Texas A&M and nobody says we can’t go out there and beat them. So we’re looking for a bounce back.”