WNBA: Caitlin Clark Shoved To The Ground In Commissioner’s Cup Appearance-Clinching Win

Multiple fights broke out in Indiana's 88-71 victory over Connecticut.

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark talks with head coach Stephanie White.

Last night, the Indiana Fever defeated the Connecticut Sun 88-71 to earn the team a spot in the 2025 WNBA Commissioner’s Cup, an in-season competition that sees the best squads from the Eastern and Western Conferences play each other for a prize pool of $500,000. With the win, the Fever will take on the Western Conference’s Minnesota Lynx in the Commissioner’s Cup.

Fever guard Caitlin Clark was phenomenal as always, scoring 20 points and recording six assists on a night where she made 50% of her field goal attempts. However, her performance and the win were overshadowed by skirmishes and a fight that led to the ejection of three players in the final minute of the game.

The altercations began in the third quarter when Connecticut Sun guard Jacy Sheldon poked Caitlin Clark in the eye while attempting to swipe at the basketball. After the foul was called, Clark pushed Sheldon, which led to a scuffle among players from both teams. During the commotion, Connecticut Sun guard Marina Mabrey shoved Clark, who fell to the ground. Following the confrontation, Clark, Sheldon, and Sun’s center Tina Charles were all issued Flagrant 1 fouls. According to ESPN, referee Ashley Gloss said the contact that Mabrey made “did not rise to the level of ejection or meet the criteria for a flagrant 2.”

Even though Caitlin Clark was asked about the scuffle in a postgame interview, Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White answered the question for her.

“There wasn’t an explanation for the tech that she got,” White said while talking about Clark’s third-quarter foul. “I think it was pretty obvious that stuff was brewing, right? When the officials don’t get control of the ball game. 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. They’re going to have their teammates’ backs. It’s exactly what you expect out of fierce competition.”

White made an interesting comment, stating that she knew emotions were going to boil over at some point during the game.

“I started talking to the officials in the first quarter,” she said. “We knew this was going to happen. You could tell it was going to happen. So they’ve got to get control of it. They’ve got to be better… I think it’s a league-wide issue. Bad officiating is bad officiating.”

Unsurprisingly, this was not the only skirmish in last night’s game. The action picked back up in the final minute of the game when the Fever’s Sophie Cunningham committed a hard foul on Jacy Sheldon as she attempted a layup with 46.1 seconds left in the game. After Cunningham’s foul sent Sheldon to the ground, a scrum involving players, coaches, and security officials broke out on the court. As a result of the fight, Cunningham, Sheldon, and the Sun’s Lindsay Allen were all ejected from the game.

“It was a flagrant foul,” White said bluntly as she shrugged her shoulders. However, Connecticut Sun head coach Rachid Meziane said the move was “disrespectful.”

“I did not understand,” she said after the loss. “When you are winning a game by 17 points and you’re doing this, to me, stupid foul; this is just disrespectful… For me, it’s just disrespectful to do that foul when you’re winning the game by 17 points. Completely stupid.”

Caitlin Clark avoided talking about any of the altercations that took place in last night’s game. She told reporters, “I mean, you guys came for basketball. Let’s talk about basketball.”

With the win, the Fever will face the Lynx for the Commissioner’s Cup on July 1st. That game will be played in Minnesota at 8:00 p.m. EDT.

“Obviously, we’re excited. It’s a big deal,” Clark said. “It’s a hard thing to do, and why wouldn’t we celebrate that? We’re getting to play for a pool of money – that’s pretty fun – and you’re competing to win a trophy. It’s an extra game for us to get better, as well.”

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