Indiana Fever misplaced 92-71 to Connecticut Solar within the season opener that was offered out for Clark’s debut sport within the WNBA.
Caitlin Clark’s WNBA profession formally started on the highway with Indiana Fever’s 92-71 loss by the hands of the Connecticut Solar within the regular-season opener in Uncasville, Connecticut.
DeWanna Bonner climbed the all-time scoring checklist with 20 factors and the Solar capitalised on Clark’s mistake-prone debut on Tuesday.
Clark, who was chosen with the primary decide after a record-breaking faculty profession, tallied a team-high 20 factors and three assists however dedicated 10 turnovers and 4 fouls. She shot 5-for-15 from the ground, together with 4-of-11 from 3-point vary.
“Dissatisfied and no person likes to lose, that’s how it’s,” Clark mentioned after the sport.
“Can’t beat your self up an excessive amount of about one sport.”
Clark’s miscues included six bad-pass turnovers and one travelling name. Connecticut scored 29 factors off Indiana’s 25 whole turnovers.
Indiana coach Christie Sides mentioned, “Caitlin was in a position to get her some appears, in a position to knock them down. Our spacing was not nice. Connecticut got here in and punched us within the mouth tonight. We’ll be within the health club tomorrow watching a variety of video making an attempt to determine how to not flip the ball over 25 instances.”
Clark related with Aliyah Boston to tally an help on the sport’s opening possession. However the rookie additionally picked up two early fouls and sat for many of the remaining 4:51 of the interval.
Clark’s first WNBA basket got here on a driving layup halfway by the second after an 0-for-4 begin. Her first skilled 3-pointer was a catch-and-shoot play from the left wing to chop the deficit to single digits with 30.1 seconds earlier than halftime, however Connecticut finally took a 49-39 edge to the locker room.
Clark hit a 29-foot triple and Erica Wheeler added 5 factors in an 8-2 Fever spurt early within the third quarter to trim their deficit to 53-47. That’s as shut as they might get, as Bonner and Thomas mixed for the subsequent six factors.
Bonner’s three-point play on the 6:37 mark of the fourth quarter made it 75-59 Solar. Clark made her third 3 on the following possession, however Harris answered with one for Connecticut and the Fever by no means threatened once more.
An unprecedented flood of curiosity in ladies’s basketball has adopted Clark from her record-smashing faculty profession at Iowa to the WNBA. The practically 10,000-seat Mohegan Solar Area is offered out for Clark’s debut, and the published will embrace participant mics and roving cameras for “a WNBA Finals-level manufacturing setup.”
Forward of the sport, Clark was merely making an attempt to soak within the second.
“That is sort of what you labored for and dreamed of, and now you gotta put your jersey on for the primary actual time and go on the market and play,” Clark mentioned. “… Greater than something, I’m prepared for the problem.”
The three-point sharpshooter broke the all-time Division I scoring report, males’s or ladies’s, and guided Iowa to the nationwide championship sport.