Caitlin Clark has been one of the best things to ever happen to the WNBA.
But that hasn’t stopped opponents from taking liberties with the Indiana Fever superstar.
During Tuesday night’s game between the Fever and Connecticut Sun, the WNBA got a lot more attention for all the wrong reasons as Clark – once again – was seemingly used as a punching bag by her opponents.
During the third quarter of the contest at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Clark was dribbling the ball when she was poked in the eye by the Sun’s Jacy Sheldon, sparking an altercation between the two teams.
Clark took exception to the swipe and bumped Sheldon while appearing to say something.
That’s when two more Sun players descended on Clark, with Tina Charles trying to get in her face while wagging her finger before Marina Mabrey bodychecked the former Iowa star to the floor.
Both teams continued to argue while referees tried to keep everyone apart and sort out the testy situation.
Clark, Mabrey and Charles were assessed technical fouls while Sheldon was handed a flagrant 1 for the play.
After the game, crew chief Ashley Gloss said Sheldon was issued a flagrant because the initial foul was “unnecessary” and that “the contact to the face carried a potential for injury.”
Gloss also said “the contact made by Mabrey did not rise to the level of an ejection” and that it “did not meet the criteria for a flagrant foul penalty two.”
Tensions understandably remained high for the rest of the contest, which saw Indiana’s Sophie Cunningham commit a hard foul on Sheldon with under a minute to play and the game well out of hand.
The takedown prompted both sides to clash under the Fever basket as refs again had to step in to separate them.
In the end, the Fever won the game 88-71 in Clark’s second contest back after a quad injury knocked her out of action for several games.
After the game, Fever coach Stephanie White shared a harsh criticism of the officiating crew.
“When the officials don’t get control of the ballgame, when they allow that stuff to happen, and it’s been happening all season long … you’ve got competitive women who are the best in the world at what they do, 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,” White told reporters.
“It’s exactly what you expect out of fierce competition. I started talking to the officials in the first quarter, and we knew this was going to happen. You could tell it was going to happen. So they got to get control of it. They got to be better.”