Senior forward Khadijah Whittington finished the night 3-of-16 from the field while missing six of her 11 free throws — not to mention the multiple missed point-blank layups at Reynolds Coliseum on Monday night.
But with less than four minutes remaining, it was Whittington who wouldn’t let her career end against South Carolina in the second round of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament. With the team down one point following a Nikitta Gartrell 3-pointer, Whittington stole an inbounds pass, finished a layup and drew a foul.
Then came the outburst — a jump, a first pump and then a yell.
“The only thing going through my mind was: ‘I’m not ready to end my career like this.’ So I just buckled down and played smarter,” Whittington said.
Following the made free throw, Whittington put her team up 66-64 with 2:16 remaining. In the following possession she swatted a ball out of bounds. She would foul out moments later, but she left her team with the lead.
Once the senior from Roanoke, Va., exited the game, junior guard Shayla Fields and her teammates rallied and held on to the lead, winning 72-69.
“When KD went out, the four of us that were on [the court] got together and said, ‘OK, this is not the end of the game. We’re gonna do this for KD, and we’re going to do this for the team — we’re not going to let up,'” Fields said.
South Carolina led by as many as 13 in the second half and by 10 with less than 10 minutes remaining in the game. State would continually draw the game to within five points, but could never draw closer — that is, until the final couple minutes.
“It seemed like we could get within five, and then it would shoot back up. Back to five, shoot back up,” coach Kay Yow said. “We finally got it down to three twice, but when [Gartrell] hit the three from the baseline, in the matter of a few seconds, the game changed.”
South Carolina freshman guard Jordan Jones paced the Gamecocks as she finished with 27 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field and 7-of-9 from behind the 3-point line. In South Carolina’s opening round game against North Carolina A & T, the guard set a WNIT record and tied a team record with nine 3-pointers.
After Jones hit five 3-pointers in the first half, Yow looked to Fields to shut down the sharpshooter.
“We put Shayla on the 3-point shooter all through the second half, and she’s our best perimeter defender,” Yow said. “She got the job done. The girl may have hit two, but two and five in a short period of time are two different things. We sort of got her under control.”
Fields finished the game with 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists in 37 minutes. Along with Whittington, who had 11 points, and Fields, Gartrell was the only other player to score in double digits as she finished with 14 points.
Gartrell’s 5-of-9 performance from the field was a stark turnaround from her 0-of-12 performance in the team’s previous game, more than two weeks ago, the Pack’s opening round ACC Tournament loss against Clemson.
Sophomore 6-foot-5 center Chanita Jordan went down with an injury late in the game and did not return. After the game, Yow was unsure whether Jordan would be able to play Thursday as her injury was not yet determined.
The win moved State to the third round, where it will play Florida on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Reynolds Coliseum. Florida is coming off of a 60-55 win on Monday night against Florida Gulf Coast University.
