INDIANAPOLIS — The seemingly never-ending drama between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese continued Saturday when Clark was called for a flagrant foul on Reese during the Indiana Fever’s 93-58 win over the Chicago Sky during the WNBA’s opening weekend.
In the middle of the third quarter, Reese appeared to push Natasha Howard in the back prior to grabbing an offensive rebound. Clark, who finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for third career triple-double, put her arms out expecting a call from the refs, but none was forthcoming. As Reese gathered to go up for a layup, Clark wrapped her up with a hard foul.
Reese took exception and popped up and immediately started yelling at Clark. Fever forward Aliyah Boston quickly arrived on the scene and pushed Reese, as Clark walked away from the situation. The back-and-forth continued verbally for a brief time before officials and coaches broke things up.
The officials went to the monitor to review the play, and after a lengthy consultation decided to upgrade the foul to a Flagrant 1 on Clark. Reese and Boston, meanwhile, were hit with offsetting technical fouls.
An already raucous Indiana crowed erupted in fury at the decision, and grew even louder when Reese missed the first flagrant free throw, before making the second one.
“It’s just a good take foul,” Clark said on the broadcast. “Either Angel gets wide open two points or we send them to the free throw line. Nothing malicious about it. It’s just a good take foul. Every basketball player knows that.”
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Prior to the game, Clark had attempted to downplay the rivalry between the teams and herself and Reese.
“More than anything as a player, you approach the game the same every single time, or you should,” Clark said. “That’s how you should approach every single game. You prepare the same way, you come ready to play, whether it’s the team that’s last in the league or the team that’s first in the league. It doesn’t matter.
“For our team and our group, we prepare the same way every single game.”
Saturday’s incident is another reminder, however, that this is a real rivalry, whether the principal parties want to admit it or not.