North Carolina State University Athletics
Whittington Dominant in Wolfpack Win at Wake
2/17/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. Khadijah Whittington notched her 17th double-double of the year with 16 points and 13 rebounds to lead NC State to a 56-36 win over Wake Forest in ACC play Sunday afternoon at Joel Coliseum.
Whittington became the second all-time rebounder in Wolfpack history in the contest and now has 1,061 for her career. She also was a menace on defense with three steals and two blocks.
Shayla Fields tossed in 13 points for NC State (17-9, 5-6 ACC).
Brittany Waters paced Wake Forest (14-13, 1-11 ACC) with 10 points, while Corinne Groves had nine points and 12 boards.
Leading 27-22 at the half, NC State methodically pulled away in the second half by simply not allowing Wake Forest to get into any flow on offense. Wake suffered scoring droughts off 3:51, 2:28 and 3:49 that allowed the Pack to put together a 17-3 run that was the difference in NC State’s third straight league win.
Sharnise Beal was a big lift off the bench in the second half, The New Britain, Conn., native had missed Thursday’s game with a shin injury but showed little effects of that by scoring six points, including two straight buckets within the decisive run for the Pack.
Megan Zullo’s jumper at the 4:58 mark gave NC State a 48-30 lead. The lead never was less than 15 the rest of the way.
Whittington showed in the first half just how important she is to the Wolfpack’s success. They got off to a 9-2 start in the opening minutes before a second foul put Whittington on the bench.
As she sat the Demon Deacons outscored the Pack 9-2 as the game was tied 11-all half way through the opening half.
With Whittington back in she took over on the offensive end scoring four straight buckets for the Pack on distinctively different moves. First it was a jumper at the free throw line, later it was a put back layup and then capped it off with a turnaround jumper from the elbow for a 19-14 advantage.
The Naismith Award candidate later sent a no-look pass to a wide-open Chanita Jordan under the basket for two more and it was 21-16 with 5:26 to play.
A pair of free throws by Amber White and Nikitta Gartrell at the end of the first half opened up a 27-21 lead. Both sophomore guards scored six points apiece in the opening 20 minutes.
NC State held Wake to under 40 points for the second time in three weeks.
In the midst of three straight ACC road games for the first time since 2000-01, the Pack will visit archrival North Carolina on Monday, February 25 at 7 pm.
