Lost in all the discourse about how the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark is — or isn’t — officiated is this: When she’s scoring and dishing out the assists in concert, there are few players in the world better than Clark.
The first-ever 45-point, 10-assist performance in WNBA history Friday night was evidence of that. All of that was needed for Indiana to pull out a 110-107 home win over the Seattle Storm as Clark drained the tie-breaking 3-pointer in the last minute.
Clark and the Fever will try to author an encore on Saturday night when they finish their back-to-back set at home against the New York Liberty.
Clark needed just 18 shots to score all those points, thanks largely to 6-of-10 shooting from the 3-point line. She also marched to the line 19 times, sinking 17. For good measure, she came up with a key blocked shot in the final minute.
“I felt like I had good opportunities and I was aggressive early,” Clark said of her performance. “I was able to get to the free throw line a lot … we found a way.”
Clark and Indiana (15-10) will face a well-rested opponent. New York (13-11) hasn’t played since Sunday, when it lost 93-91 to Toronto in Montreal. The Liberty’s game against the Dallas Wings on Thursday night was postponed due to issues with their charter flight to Texas.
Mechanical issues forced the team to spend 12 hours on the tarmac before they deplaned. The game was rescheduled for Monday night.
New York is going through a puzzling stretch. It’s lost three straight, which was preceded by an emphatic win over the Minnesota Lynx and a victory against the Las Vegas Aces in the Commissioner’s Cup championship game.
Perhaps because of that, or because of Betnijah Laney-Hamilton’s ejection Sunday for hitting Toronto’s Marina Mabrey with a shoe in the last two minutes, first-year coach Chris DeMarco went off on the officials after the latest loss. Laney-Hamilton reportedly was attempting to get the shoe back to teammate Jonquel Jones, who lost it on the court.
“I’ve never seen a ref make such an atrocious call when he’s on the other side of the floor,” he said.
Indiana center Aliyah Boston (lower leg), who sat out Friday night, is listed on the WNBA injury report as questionable.
–Field Level Media
