Related Story: Column: Cats waste opportunity for SEC East crown

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Locked in a two-way tie atop the Southeastern Conference’s Eastern Division, UK and South Carolina filed their applications Wednesday for the top spot.

By the night’s end, UK’s letter was returned with a garnet-colored stamp, simply reading: rejected.

The Gamecocks threw a school-record block party, sending away 16 shots. South Carolina pulled away early and never looked back, winning 77-59 in front of 16,035 fans at the Colonial Life Arena.

“I don’t go into a game thinking, ‘Hey, they’re going to block a lot of shots,’ ” UK head coach Billy Gillispie said. “Then again, they played very aggressively and very well.”

UK sophomore Patrick Patterson paced the Cats with 28 points and 12 rebounds, but 20 of those points came after intermission with UK’s fate all but sealed. Gillispie lauded Patterson for carrying the Cats in the second half: UK players not wearing No. 54 shot 3-of-19 in the after halftime, tallying just 11 points.

“It’s one of the best games I’ve ever seen a guy play inside — to have absolutely zero help, it was one of the most courageous efforts I’ve ever seen,” Gillispie said. “That’s the kind of person he is and the kind of player he is. He was getting his shot blocked quite a few times, but he never quit posting or ran from it.”

South Carolina’s shot blockers didn’t run away from the post, either. Nine of South Carolina’s 16 rejections came on Patterson shot attempts.

“It’s part of our defensive philosophy to be really active and really aggressive,” said South Carolina head coach Darrin Horn, a Lexington native who is 2-0 against the Cats in his first year with the Gamecocks. “I think we did that. I think it started early on, and the great part was that it maintained throughout the game.”

Horn’s squad wasted no time setting the pace early on, on either end of the floor. South Carolina junior Dominique Archie scored the game’s first basket, a driving layup just 18 seconds after the Gamecocks won the opening tip.

Archie drilled two 3-pointers before five minutes had elapsed, notching eight early points to give Carolina a 15-8 lead. He finished the game with 12 points and four blocks, but his early barrage set the tone for the wire-to-wire rout.

“I think he helped us get off to a really good start,” Horn said. “That’s just what he does. He does all the little things. He’s the ultimate warrior.”

Archie’s four blocks finished second on the team to sophomore Sam Muldrow’s seven. The Cats, who rank third in the country with seven blocks per game, swatted just four shots all night.

UK junior Perry Stevenson, the SEC’s third-best shot blocker with 2.2 blocks per contest, didn’t record any blocks on Wednesday. He only played 15 minutes, saying Gillispie didn’t play him because he “can’t be out there making so many mistakes all the time.”

Stevenson remained seated for the whole second half, but the Cats couldn’t turn around the 18-point halftime deficit. Gillispie said the Cats “just got whipped.”

Now sitting in second place in the SEC East standings, the Cats are also sitting in second place among the conference’s leaders in shot blockers (Mississippi State is first). On Wednesday, though, the “rejected” stamp was dipped in ink that wasn’t blue.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been in a game with so many blocks,” Stevenson said. “At least not on the receiving end.”