N.C. State's only senior didn't want her college basketball career to end on a bad shooting night, at home, in the Women's NIT against South Carolina.

So she didn't -- and N.C. State won 72-69 Monday night in the tournament's second round.

The Wolfpack advances to the third round and will play Florida on Thursday night at Reynolds Coliseum.

"I was thinking: 'I'm not ready to stop. I'm not ready to end my career,' " Whittington said. "So [in the second half] I just buckled down and played smarter. We played smarter."

N.C. State's Chanita Jordan hurt a knee during the game. Coach Kay Yow said the injury could be a ligament tear, and she was unsure about Jordan's availability for Thursday.

To win Monday, the Pack had to catch the Gamecocks, who led most of the way.

State's players started diving after loose balls and hustling to swat away inbounds passes.

Whittington got an assist on Nikitta Gartrell's long-range 3-pointer to cut South Carolina's lead to 64-63 with 2:20 remaining.

With most of the Gamecocks running up the floor with their backs turned, Whittington stole the inbounds pass and make a layup, drawing a foul. She made the free throw for an old-fashioned three-point play to put the Pack up for good.

In the first half, the Wolfpack struggled to even get the basics right.

The worst place for the Wolfpack was in the paint, with State missing over and over from right under the basket.

The in-the-paint futility was only one part of a bad shooting performance in the first half, with State shooting 8-of-29 -- 27.6 percent.

The hosts went to the locker room trailing 37-23. Things didn't get much better immediately after intermission.

But the Wolfpack, spurred by Whittington's emotion and hustle, slowly chipped at the Gamecocks' lead.

"The first half and second half were completely different," Yow said. "We had to pick our defense up, and we had to get on the boards."

Whittington averaged more than 17 points during the regular season.

But Monday night her impact was more inspirational than her scoring.

In the locker room, "we knew we didn't have a lot of intensity," said Whittington, who grabbed 15 rebounds and scored 11 points despite shooting only 3-of-16 from the field. "... [W]e were just standing around on defense."

The game was Yow's first NIT contest since 1986. The last time the Wolfpack missed the NCAA Tournament was 2003, when the NCSU coach decided not to take her veteran-laden team to the postseason.

But this year, with only one senior on the roster, Yow thought the extra experience would do State some good.

The coach said she just wants the Wolfpack to play to its potential all the time.

"You know people have abilities and talents. You just want to see them reach their potential," Yow said. "... There are a lot of people in the grave with potential -- it just didn't happen. I want it to happen with my players."

Shayla Fields led the Wolfpack with 16 points, and Gartrell scored 14 points and collected seven rebounds.

Jordan Jones scored 17 of her 27 points in the first half for the Gamecocks.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)