North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Whittington Leads Pack into WNIT Semi-finals
4/2/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. The best way to describe Khadijah Whittington’s last three games for NC State women’s basketball? She’s playing like someone who doesn’t want her career to end.
“Exactly,” said the senior from Roanoke, Va. “At the very least, I want to end my career on a good note.”
There wasn’t much good to Whittington’s first two post-season games this year. Like the rest of the team, she did not play well in the Wolfpack’s brief appearance in the ACC Tournament, a 65-60 loss to Clemson, a team the Wolfpack had beaten by 32 points a week earlier.
In the first round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, after an 18-day layoff, Whittington was perhaps the rustiest of the Wolfpack players, missing 12 of her first 14 shots, as NC State fell behind by double-digits to South Carolina.
But something clicked in the second half against the Gamecocks, and when Nikitta Gartrell cut the Gamecock lead to just one point with less than two minutes to play, Whittington decided she needed to make something happen.
“It was getting to be the end of my career,” she said. “I figured I might as well throw everything I had at it. I just went for it.”
She stayed in the backcourt for the inbounds pass, even though no one called for a full-court press defense. She intercepted the pass, scored a layup and drew the foul. After she completed the three-point play, the Wolfpack never trailed again.
In fact, it hasn’t trailed much in the two games since then, either, a pair of wins over Florida and St. John’s at Reynolds Coliseum that propelled the Pack into the WNIT’s semifinals.
Tonight, Whittington leads her teammates into their first WNIT road game, playing at Michigan State. The game is slated to tip-off at 7 p.m. and can be heard locally on WKNC 88.1-FM and globally for subscribers to GoPack.com’s PackPass.
The play against the Gamecocks typifies how the Wolfpack has performed since halftime of the first WNIT game with intensity and purpose.
“”That first game was a little scary, because we came out rusty,” Whittington said. “I just decided, Uhn-uh, we are not going to lose this game.’ From that point on, we just started to click.
“I told the rest of the team, Y’all, we can do this. We just have to play harder.’ And that’s where we are now.”
The winner of tonight’s game will face the winner of tonight’s semifinal between Colorado and Marquette on Saturday afternoon. The site of the game will be determined after the participants are decided.
Coach Kay Yow’s team has put itself into this position despite being down to just eight scholarship players. With Whittington as the team’s only scholarship senior and guard Shayla Fields as the only junior, the Pack is still a noticeably young team that has seemed to bond over the last two weeks.
Both of the upperclassmen have provided strong examples for their younger teammates. Whittington not only made the decisive defensive play against the Gamecocks, she has posted three consecutive double-doubles in the tournament. She had 17 points and 11 rebounds against St. John’s, 13 and 17 against Florida and 15 and 11 against South Carolina, for a total of 41 points and 43 rebounds in the three games.
The first-team All-ACC selection has not only moved up to fourth in scoring in the ACC at 16.9 points per game, she leads the league in rebounding at 11.7 per game, more than two more than two players tied for second place.
Fields has also had an impact, hitting the game-winning shot in the St. John’s game with just 18 seconds to play, after it appeared that the Wolfpack would squander its 20-point halftime lead. But her shot allowed the Pack to hold on for a 63-61 victory and a spot in the semifinals.
For Whittington, whose play at the end of last year was a spark the Wolfpack needed to advance to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen, it has been a nice pay-back from her teammates to advance this far.
Sure, she was disappointed that the team didn’t make the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive season. But once the Pack got the bid to the WNIT, she encouraged them to make the best of the situation.
“This team has just been clicking,” Whittington said. “We’re persevering, wanting to win and do great things for this program. People are starting to step up, and I really appreciate it.
“I really didn’t want my season to be over.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
RALEIGH, N.C. The best way to describe Khadijah Whittington’s last three games for NC State women’s basketball? She’s playing like someone who doesn’t want her career to end.
“Exactly,” said the senior from Roanoke, Va. “At the very least, I want to end my career on a good note.”
There wasn’t much good to Whittington’s first two post-season games this year. Like the rest of the team, she did not play well in the Wolfpack’s brief appearance in the ACC Tournament, a 65-60 loss to Clemson, a team the Wolfpack had beaten by 32 points a week earlier.
In the first round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, after an 18-day layoff, Whittington was perhaps the rustiest of the Wolfpack players, missing 12 of her first 14 shots, as NC State fell behind by double-digits to South Carolina.
But something clicked in the second half against the Gamecocks, and when Nikitta Gartrell cut the Gamecock lead to just one point with less than two minutes to play, Whittington decided she needed to make something happen.
“It was getting to be the end of my career,” she said. “I figured I might as well throw everything I had at it. I just went for it.”
She stayed in the backcourt for the inbounds pass, even though no one called for a full-court press defense. She intercepted the pass, scored a layup and drew the foul. After she completed the three-point play, the Wolfpack never trailed again.
In fact, it hasn’t trailed much in the two games since then, either, a pair of wins over Florida and St. John’s at Reynolds Coliseum that propelled the Pack into the WNIT’s semifinals.
Tonight, Whittington leads her teammates into their first WNIT road game, playing at Michigan State. The game is slated to tip-off at 7 p.m. and can be heard locally on WKNC 88.1-FM and globally for subscribers to GoPack.com’s PackPass.
The play against the Gamecocks typifies how the Wolfpack has performed since halftime of the first WNIT game with intensity and purpose.
“”That first game was a little scary, because we came out rusty,” Whittington said. “I just decided, Uhn-uh, we are not going to lose this game.’ From that point on, we just started to click.
“I told the rest of the team, Y’all, we can do this. We just have to play harder.’ And that’s where we are now.”
The winner of tonight’s game will face the winner of tonight’s semifinal between Colorado and Marquette on Saturday afternoon. The site of the game will be determined after the participants are decided.
Coach Kay Yow’s team has put itself into this position despite being down to just eight scholarship players. With Whittington as the team’s only scholarship senior and guard Shayla Fields as the only junior, the Pack is still a noticeably young team that has seemed to bond over the last two weeks.
Both of the upperclassmen have provided strong examples for their younger teammates. Whittington not only made the decisive defensive play against the Gamecocks, she has posted three consecutive double-doubles in the tournament. She had 17 points and 11 rebounds against St. John’s, 13 and 17 against Florida and 15 and 11 against South Carolina, for a total of 41 points and 43 rebounds in the three games.
The first-team All-ACC selection has not only moved up to fourth in scoring in the ACC at 16.9 points per game, she leads the league in rebounding at 11.7 per game, more than two more than two players tied for second place.
Fields has also had an impact, hitting the game-winning shot in the St. John’s game with just 18 seconds to play, after it appeared that the Wolfpack would squander its 20-point halftime lead. But her shot allowed the Pack to hold on for a 63-61 victory and a spot in the semifinals.
For Whittington, whose play at the end of last year was a spark the Wolfpack needed to advance to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen, it has been a nice pay-back from her teammates to advance this far.
Sure, she was disappointed that the team didn’t make the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive season. But once the Pack got the bid to the WNIT, she encouraged them to make the best of the situation.
“This team has just been clicking,” Whittington said. “We’re persevering, wanting to win and do great things for this program. People are starting to step up, and I really appreciate it.
“I really didn’t want my season to be over.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
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