Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese agreed on one factor Saturday: their dustup through the groups’ WNBA season opener was simply a part of basketball.
Each stars downplayed the on-court fracas that occurred within the third quarter and which spurred Indiana to a 93-58 victory over the Chicago Sky. It began with Reese grabbing an offensive rebound and Clark slapping Reese’s arm onerous sufficient to jar the ball unfastened and knock Reese to flooring.
When Reese received up, she tried to confront Clark earlier than Indiana heart Aliyah Boston stepped in to calm tempers down. Clark’s third private foul was upgraded to a flagrant 1 whereas Boston and Reese every drew technical fouls after a replay overview by the referees.
“Let’s not make it one thing that it’s not,” Clark stated after posting the third triple-double of her profession. “It was only a good play on the basketball. I’m undecided what the ref noticed to improve it, and that’s as much as their discretion. It’s a take foul to place them on the free-throw line. I’ve watched a whole lot of basketball in my life, that’s precisely what it was. I wasn’t making an attempt to do something malicious. That’s not the kind of participant I’m.”
Nevertheless it was onerous to disregard the plain – that the conflict added one other chapter to the rivalry that has captivated ladies’s basketball. It dates to their school days, when Reese helped lead LSU to victory over Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes for the 2022-23 nationwide championship. Clark received the rematch within the spring of 2024, a recreation that drew 12.3 million tv viewers.
Lower than eight weeks later, they had been squaring off within the WNBA within the first of 4 matchups. The Fever took three of these contests, many that includes onerous fouls as the rivalry attracted online vitriol, a few of it racist and sexist. In the long run Clark helped Indiana make the playoffs and the Sky got here up quick as Reese missed the ultimate two weeks of video games with a season-ending wrist damage.
Now the rivalry has restarted within the season’s opening weekend. Reese gave her personal ideas on Saturday’s incident.
“A basketball play,” she stated with out elaborating after scoring 12 factors and grabbing 17 rebounds.
When a follow-up query was requested later within the interview, a workforce spokesperson stated Reese had already answered the query. When Sky coach Tyler Marsh was requested about his ideas, he paused earlier than repeating Reese’s reply.
Indiana had slightly extra to say after Clark completed with 20 factors, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and a career-high 4 blocks.
“No person’s going to get something simple in opposition to us,” new Fever coach Stephanie White stated. “We’re going to be a tricky defensive workforce. I believed it was a transparent play on the ball as properly. One of many factors of emphasis is we are able to’t surrender. However I believed it was a transparent play on the ball.”
Crew chief Roy Gulbeyan disagreed. “The foul on Clark met the standards for flagrant foul 1, for wind up, impression, and observe by means of for the extension of the left hand to Reese’s again, which is deemed not a respectable basketball play, and subsequently deemed pointless contact,” he stated. “After the foul, there’s a bodily taunt technical on Boston and a verbal technical on Reese, which offset.”
Boston could have been essentially the most shocked, not even realizing she had been known as for the technical till after the sport. She reacted by placing her palms on her face, trying shocked and asking if she actually had drawn the technical. However the calls clearly modified the sport.
After Reese missed the primary of two throws, Gainbridge Fieldhouse erupted in cheers. Reese made the second and Chicago added a layup on the following possession to shut to 56-45. Then the Fever closed the third quarter with 9 straight factors to increase the margin by 20 and by no means let Chicago get nearer than 18 the remainder of the way in which as they matched the second-largest victory margin in franchise historical past.
“I went for the ball, clear as day within the replay,” Clark stated. “You watch it, you realize it shouldn’t have been upgraded. Once more that’s as much as the refs’ discretion, however I respect AB having my again.”
