Caitlin Clark isn’t giving her opponents any extra consideration than is critical.
The Indiana Fever star Clark was concerned in a sequence of heated incidents throughout Tuesday’s WNBA Commissioner’s Cup recreation in opposition to the Connecticut Solar. Although the Fever received by a convincing 88-71 ultimate rating at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind., the victory positively didn’t come with out drama.
Within the first half, Clark had a heated second with Solar guard Jacy Sheldon. The 2 received into one another’s faces, and Clark finally pushed Sheldon away (video right here).
Then within the second half, Sheldon hit Clark within the face whereas defending her, and Clark gave her a shove in response. Fellow Solar guard Marina Mabrey then retaliated in opposition to Clark, pushing Clark all the way down to the bottom. That incident resulted in three technical fouls in addition to a flagrant foul being handed out.
Lastly within the closing seconds of the fourth quarter, Fever veteran Sophie Cunningham received some revenge for Clark by hitting Sheldon with a fairly onerous foul. That led to a different heated scuffle between the 2 groups, after which Cunningham, Sheldon and Connecticut’s Lindsay Allen have been all ejected.
Talking with reporters afterwards, Clark was requested about all of the extracurricular exercise that occurred through the recreation. She responded by basically capturing the query down.
“You guys got here for basketball, let’s speak about basketball,” mentioned Clark.
“Come on now,” Clark later added. “We’re going to the Commissioner’s Cup Championship, that’s fairly thrilling. Y’all wanna speak about that? Let’s speak about that.”
Certainly, the Fever superior to the championship spherical of the Commissioner’s Cup (the WNBA’s model of an in-season match) and can now face the Minnesota Lynx for the trophy on July 1. Indiana can also be now 6-5 on the season total, which is an encouraging signal on condition that Clark lately missed a few weeks with a quad harm.
However on the subject of the Fever and the Solar, there may be definitely a historical past of animosity there. It’s possible you’ll recall that the 2 groups met within the first spherical of the WNBA playoffs final yr. Connecticut received the best-of-three affair in a two-game sweep, and Clark notably fell sufferer to an eye fixed poke in the midst of the sequence.
