Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark got hit in the eye and knocked to the ground, while also doing some shoving of her own, during a testy and physical game against the Connecticut Sun on Monday night in Indianapolis.
The Fever emerged with an 88-71 win after a game that featured a pair of skirmishes, including a fight in the final minute that led to three ejections.
Speaking to reporters after the game, Indiana coach Stephanie White blamed “bad officiating,” which she said is a league-wide issue.
“This is what happens,” White said. “You’ve got competitive women who are the best in the world at what they do, right? And when you allow them to play physical and you allow these things to happen, they’re going to compete. And they’re going to have their teammates’ backs. It’s exactly what you expect out of fierce competition.
“So I started talking to the officials in the first quarter. And we knew this was going to happen. You could tell it was gonna happen. So they’ve got to get control of it. They’ve got to be better.”
Things appeared to be chippy between Clark and Connecticut’s Jacy Sheldon throughout the game, with ESPN cameras showing Clark giving Sheldon a bit of a shove as the two were exchanging words during the second quarter.
Then, during a play midway through the third quarter, Clark got poked in the eye by Sheldon and responded by giving the Sun star another shove. Connecticut’s Tina Charles stepped in and wagged her finger toward Clark, then the Sun’s Marina Mabrey pushed Clark to the ground.
Sheldon was called for a flagrant 1 foul, while Clark, Mabrey and Tina Charles each received a technical foul. When Clark was asked about the technical foul during the postgame news conference, White jumped in and said she’d handle questions about the officiating.
Clark and Charles each led their teams with 20 points apiece.
Later, with less than a minute left in the game and the Fever up by 17, Sheldon made a steal and was taken down hard by Indiana’s Sophie Cunningham. A scuffle ensued, with Cunningham, Sheldon and Connecticut’s Lindsay Allen eventually being ejected.
After the game, Sun coach Rachid Meziane said Cunningham’s foul on Sheldon was “disrespectful.”
“When you are winning a game by 17 points, and you doing this … for me, [it’s] a stupid foul,” Meziane said.
Asked about the same play, White said, “It was a flagrant foul.” When pressed on whether Cunningham might have made the move in defense of Clark or the team, White simply repeated, “It was a flagrant foul.”
With the win, the Fever earned a spot in the Commissioner’s Cup championship game against the Minnesota Lynx on July 1.
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