Cnn
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Caitlin Clark had a hectic opening match of the season on Saturday, claiming the third triple-double in his WNBA career and receiving a blatant fault for a push on the longtime rival Angel Reese, while Indiana fever has routed the Chicago Sky 93-58.
With 4:38 to play in the third quarter and the fever increased by 56-42, Reese claimed an offensive rebound and headed for the basket when Clark established hard contact with his right arm, dropping the sky to the ground and sending the ball rolling.
Reese, clearly turned upside down, is back directly and tried to confront the recruit of the year 2024, which left with its back in Reese while Aliyah Boston of Indiana intervened between the two. Clark’s fault was improved from 1 to a flagrant 1, while Reese and Boston each received technical faults.
“Let’s not do anything that is not,” said Clark afterwards. “It was just a good game on basketball. I don’t know what the referee saw it to upgrade it. It was at their discretion after looking at the initial everything that happened during the room, then everything that happened afterwards.”
“It’s a fault to put them on the free throw line,” she added. “I was not trying to do anything malicious. This is not the type of player I am. ”
Clark had the support of his new head coach, Stephanie White, who begins her second term in the role after her departure in 2016.
“No one will have something easy against us,” said White. “We are going to be a difficult defensive team. I thought it was also a clear game on the ball. ”
Reese, meanwhile, did not want to be shot on the incident.
“The basketball game. References have understood. Continue,” she said at her post-match press conference, before a follow-up issue was cut by a team spokesperson who said Reese had already addressed the problem.
The very documented pair rivalry began when the Reese LSU beat Clark’s Iowa for the 2022-23 national championship, and continued when Clark won the revenge match in 2024 in front of a 12.3 million television audience.
They clashed four times last year during their early WNBA, fever by winning three. Clark was appointed recruit of the year with all 67 votes except one, with the other vote going to Reese.
The two players played in rivalry, but their bases of fans are often noisy in their aversion to the opposing player.
The Clark summit, a summit of 20 points, as well as its 10 rebounds and 10 assists, represented the third triple-double of his professional career after having accumulated 17 at Iowa. She also added four career blocks.
Boston added 19 points and 13 rebounds for Indiana, while Reese led the scoring for Chicago with 12 points, 17 rebounds and a assist.
The match also saw Dewanna Bonner, who signed with fever during the dead, score seven points, moving it over Tina Thompson and in third place in the list of the best scorers of all WNBA with 7,489.
Only Tina Charles, with 7,696, and the former teammate of Phoenix Mercury Diana Taurasi, with 10,646, have more.
“I became a little emotional. Being at the moment in front of a closed window crowds, in front of all this attention, and having this moment is simply special for me, “said Bonner.
“Being around this long, I have the impression that I deserved this moment. And so that it happens right away, in this period of my career … I am so grateful. ”
After Clark’s fault on Reese, the sky striker converted one of his free throws and Courtney Vandersloot made a lay-up to take Chicago to the 11th anniversary of Indiana.
But the fever retreated with a 9-0 race, which means that they were up 20 at the end of the third quarter. Their possible margin of victory in 35 points corresponded to the second largest in the history of the franchise.