Caitlin Clark had an eventful season opener on Saturday, claiming the third triple-double of her WNBA career and receiving a flagrant foul for a shove on long-time rival Angel Reese, as the Indiana Fever routed the Chicago Sky 93-58.
With 4:38 remaining in the third quarter and the Fever up 56-42, Reese claimed an offensive rebound and was driving towards the basket when Clark made hard contact with her right arm, knocking the Sky forward to the ground and sending the ball rolling away.
Reese, clearly upset, got straight back to her feet and tried to confront the 2024 Rookie of the Year, who walked away with her back to Reese while Indiana’s Aliyah Boston stepped between the two. Clark’s foul was upgraded from a personal to a flagrant 1, while Reese and Boston each received technical fouls.
“Let’s not make it anything that it’s not,” said Clark afterward. “It was just a good play on the basketball. I’m not sure what the ref saw to upgrade it. That’s up to their discretion after watching the initial whatever happened during the play and then whatever happened after.”
“It’s a take foul, to put them at the free throw line,” she added. “I wasn’t trying to do anything malicious. That’s not the type of player I am.”
Clark had the backing of her new head coach, Stephanie White, who is beginning her second tenure in the role after leaving in 2016.
“Nobody’s going to get anything easy against us,” said White. “We’re going to be a tough defensive team. I thought it was a clear play on the ball as well.”
Reese, meanwhile, did not want to be drawn on the incident.
“Basketball play. Refs got it right. Move on,” she said in her post-match press conference, before a follow-up question was cut off by a team spokesperson who said that Reese had already addressed the issue.
The pair’s much-documented rivalry began when Reese’s LSU beat Clark’s Iowa for the 2022-23 national championship, and continued when Clark won the rematch in 2024 in front of a television audience of 12.3 million.
They faced off four times last year in their WNBA debut seasons, with the Fever winning three. Clark was named Rookie of the Year with all but one of the 67 votes, with the other vote going to Reese.
Both players have played down the rivalry, but their fan bases are often vociferous in their dislike of the opposing player.
Clark’s game-high 20 points, along with her 10 rebounds and 10 assists, represented the third triple-double of her professional career after she racked up 17 at Iowa. She also added a career-high four blocks.
Boston added 19 points and 13 rebounds for Indiana, while Reese led the scoring for Chicago with 12 points, 17 rebounds and one assist.
The game also saw Dewanna Bonner, who signed with the Fever during the off-season, score seven points, moving her above Tina Thompson and into third place in the WNBA’s all-time leading scorers list with 7,489.
Only Tina Charles, with 7,696, and former Phoenix Mercury teammate Diana Taurasi, with 10,646, have more.
“I kind of got a little bit emotional. To be at this moment in front of a sold-out crowd, in front of all this attention, and to have that moment is just pretty special to me,” said Bonner.
“Being around that long I kind of feel like I deserved that moment. And for it to happen right then and there, in this time period in my career… I’m just so grateful.”
Following Clark’s foul on Reese, the Sky forward converted one of her free throws and Courtney Vandersloot made a layup to take Chicago within 11 of Indiana.
But the Fever hit back with a 9-0 run, meaning they were up by 20 at the end of the third quarter. Their eventual 35-point margin of victory matched the second largest in franchise history.
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