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The rivalry of years between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese added another moment on Saturday.
Clark struck Reese on the ground halfway through the third quarter of Indiana fever and the opening of the Chicago Sky season, a play that led to the first blatant fault in Clark.
The fault occurred while Reese opted for a lay-up and Clark seemed to wrap it to prevent the blow. Reese has become extended to the ground, and the reruns have shown that Clark extended his arms by contacting. Reese jumped on his feet and began to shout towards Clark while the fever guard walked in the opposite direction. Reese and the fever striker Aliyah Boston, who came across Reese while he intervenes in the name of Clark, received technical faults after the exam.
“The basketball game. References have understood. Continue,” said Reese after the match.
Roy Gulbeyan, the head of the crew, said that the fault on Clark met the criteria of a flagrant “for the end, the impact and the follow-up of the extension of the left hand on the back of Reese, which is not considered a legitimate and therefore deemed basketball game”, according to the pool report.
Clark said that she had dnamed Reese to prevent an open lay-up and send it to the free throw line, saying: “I went to get the ball, and it is clear as the day in the replay.”
“Let’s not do anything that’s not. It was just a good game on basketball. I don’t know what the referees have seen to upgrade it. It’s at their discretion,” said Clark. “We look at a lot of basketball; it is a fault to put them in the frank throw or rather abandon 2 points. I looked at a lot of basketball in my life. This is exactly what it was. I was not trying to do anything malicious. This is not the type of player I am.”
“I thought it was also a clear game on the ball,” said Fever coach Stephanie White. “One of the points of accent put for us is that we cannot give up and 1. You will feel us, but I thought it was a good game on the ball.”
Sky’s first -year coach Tyler Marsh described the flagrant as “a basketball game”, but he took care to defend Reese’s reaction on this subject. After a heated reese was guided to the bench by the staff of the sky, she briefly left this area and tried to descend the touch while she went up her finger in the direction of Clark. Some Sky staff have embarrassed Reese and prevented him from going further.
“I think it’s a little false statement for (let’s say that we had to do it),” calm her “, said Marsh after the match, pushing a question about the incident. “I think the emotions were raised on both sides, and therefore I think that Ange reacted in a way that we would react in a moment like that. For her and for us, it is understanding that we are all in the same direction.
Caitlin Clark received a blatant fault on this piece.
Aliyah Boston and Angel Reese received compensated technical faults. pic.twitter.com/jzqyew92tw
– ESPN (@espn) May 17, 2025
The fault occurred with Indiana leading 56-42. After Reese made one of his free throws and the goalkeeper of Chicago Courtney Vandersloot made a lay-up, the fever finished the quarter on a 9-0 race to take a 20-point lead in the fourth.
The fever increased this to a final score of 93-58, and Clark finished with a triple-double of 20 points, 10 reimburses and 10-assistants. Reese collected 12 points and a summit of 17 rebounds.
The Clark and Reese careers have been linked since 2023, when the LSU of Reese beat Clark Iowa in the NCAA National Championship match.
As recruits last season, Reese committed a blatant fault on Clark in the second game of their teams, which ended up being a victory of 91-83 Fever. While Clark went to the basket in the third quarter, Reese tried to block Clark’s shot but hit her in the head. Unlike this year, when the two players had to be separated, the lasts last season last season did not have an extracurricular. Clark went to the bench while the referees reviewed the game, and Reese huddled with his teammates. Clark later said that the hard fault was “part of basketball”.
(Photo: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
