By Kindsey Bernhard
NKyTribune intern
Makayla Epps said she didn’t care if her team won another game all season as long as they defeated the University of Louisville.
But Epps’ last rivalry game ended in an overtime loss as UK Hoops, ranked No. 17, lost in overtime 69-67 to the seventh-ranked Cardinals on the road Sunday afternoon. Kentucky is now 6-2 on the season.
“I grew up watching Kentucky/Louisville rivalries in football, basketball, men and women’s,” Epps said. “You got to love it. You know we are lucky two really talented teams in one state. Not a lot of teams are fortunate, not a lot of states are fortunate to have that opportunity to have two really talented teams.”
Makayla Epps drives to the basket in Kentucky’s overtime loss to Louisville on Sunday, at the Yum! Center (UK Athletics Photo by Britney Howard)
“To leave as a senior 3-1 against them,” Epps said. “I can take that. I would have liked to get this one, but things happen.”
Despite recording her first double-double of the season, Epps’ play couldn’t get her teammates over the hump on Sunday. Epps finished with 22 points and 16 rebounds. Her 16 rebounds were a career-high.
Epps had many opportunities to grab rebounds because she played the entire 45 minutes of the game.
“She fought her tail off against bigger players and did a good job,” UK head coach Matthew Mitchell said.
After the game Louisville head coach Jeff Walz stopped Epps in the handshake line to tell her how great of a game manager she is.
“She’s one of the top five guards I think in the country,” Walz said. “Makayla does an unbelievable job at being able to manage a basketball game. She makes everybody else on that team better.”
“I’m really impressed with how she leads her team,”Walz said. “How she makes everybody else around her that much better.”
With Evelyn Akhator in foul trouble for the second-straight game, Kentucky needed someone else to help Epps put points on the board. Sophomore Taylor Murray was that player. She finished with a career-high 21 points.
Louisville’s win snaps a five-year losing streak to Kentucky.
UK Hoops return home to play Middle Tennessee State at 7 p.m. Friday in Memorial Coliseum. The Blue Raiders of Conference USA are 2-3 on the season.
Kindsey Bernhard is a journalism senior at the University of Kentucky. She is from Ft. Wright and played high school basketball at Notre Dame Academy.
