BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – NC State’s lone senior, forward Khadijah Whittington, wouldn’t let one of the poorest performances of her career be her last.
So, even though she had missed 12 of her first 14 shots and six of her 10 free throws in the first 37 minutes of Monday night’s second-round game in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament, she still managed to make the biggest difference in the Wolfpack’s 72-69 victory over South Carolina.
“The only thing that went through my mind was that I was not ready to end my career like this,” Whittington said. “So I just buckled down and played smarter.”
Immediately after Nikitta Gartrell hit a 3-pointer with 2:20 remaining on the clock to cut the Gamecock lead to just one point, Whittington stepped in front of the inbounds pass, intercepted the pass, hit a layup and converted a three-point play with a free-throw. On the other end of the court, she blocked a layup by USC’s Samone Kennedy.
Gartrell, who finished with 14 points and seven rebounds, hit another jumper and three free throws to give the Wolfpack its final margin, as Whittington watched from the sidelines after fouling out with 1:13 remaining.
It was a hard-fought, if ruggedly played, victory for the Wolfpack at Reynolds Coliseum’s Kay Yow Court. Whittington finished the game with 11 points and 15 rebounds for a Wolfpack team that was noticeably rusty after 18 days off since its last game, a frustrating 65-60 loss to Clemson in the first round of the ACC Tournament.
Junior Shayla Fields also scored 16 points for the Wolfpack, while South Carolina’s Jordan Jones finished with a game-high 27 points. Jones’ shooting in the first half spotted the Gamecocks a 37-23 lead by making five of six 3-point attempts and scoring 17 points before halftime.
The Wolfpack now advances to play Florida, a 60-55 winner over Florida-Gulf Coast Monday night, in the next round of play. The game will be played on Thursday night at Reynolds Coliseum at 7 p.m.
“At halftime, we went into the lockerroom and knew that we had not played our best,” said Whittington, who finished the game 3 of 16 from the field. “Coach told us if we had any chance to win the game, we had to pick up our intensity on defense and on the boards.”
The Pack (19-12) made only eight of 29 shots in the opening period and allowed the Gamecocks (16-16) to make eight of 12 3-point shots in building its double-digit lead.
Yow, who shuffled her starting lineup to start the game, giving Tia Bell and Brittany Strachan their first career starts, juggled her players again. She put Fields, the junior point guard, on Jones and asked her to stop the outside scoring, and inserted regular starters Gartrell and Amber White back onto the court.
“Shayla is by far our best perimeter defender,” Yow said. “And we sort of got [Jones] under control.”
Jones did make two more 3-pointers in the game, but was not nearly as effective against Fields, and the Wolfpack slowly chipped away the lead, getting it down to three points on several occasions before finally wresting the lead away.
“It seemed like we kept getting it down to five points, and they would build it right back up again,” Yow said. “Then, in just a matter of a few seconds, the game turned around completely.”
Jones was not able to work herself free for a 3-pointer in the final two minutes, and the Wolfpack hit enough free throws to seal the victory.
In the end, the biggest story of the game was the Wolfpack’s change in intensity in the second half, especially on the offensive boards. The Wolfpack gathered in 16 second-half offensive rebounds, while the Gamecocks had only two, meaning State had plenty of second-chance opportunities to cut into what was as much as a 14-point lead by the Gamecocks.
“We told [Whittington] and Lucy Ellison that we weren’t always going to hit the first shot, so they had to be ready to rebound,” Yow said. “And they did a really good job of that in the second half. It was a completely different intensity level and sense of urgency.”
And that doomed the Gamecocks’ upset bid.
“They just dominated the boards,” said South Carolina coach Susan Walvius. “The majority of their shots came from second-chance opportunities. The bottom line came down to their ability to hit second shots.”
Yow does have one concern: late in the second half sophomore center Chanita Jordan went down with what appeared to be a serious knee injury. Her status for Thursday night’s game was not immediately known, which would leave the Wolfpack without its tallest player.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
Courtesy: Eric Wilson
