Caitlin Clark continued to make history as the Indiana Fever stoked the flame of its post-Olympics hot streak in an 84-80 win over the Connecticut Sun Tuesday night. Sitting at 15-16, Indiana occupies the seventh playoff spot and is 4-1 over its last five games, in large part due to Clark, who’s averaged 22.6 points over the span and broke the rookie three-point record along the way.
The record-shattering shot occurred early in the first period when Clark put Sun defender Dijonai Carrington on skates near the right wing. After taking three dribbles to her right, the 22-year-old Clark pushed the ball behind her back and delivered one of her patented step-back triples. A flick of the wrist and splash of the net later, the star guard stood alone as the league’s rookie three-point champion. Her 86 makes surpassing Rhyne Howard of the Atlanta Dream’s 85 back in 2022.
“Feeling good, thank you to the fans who came out to support us,” Clark said during a postgame on-court interview in front of a crowd of 17,274, including American Olympians Simone Biles and Gabby Thomas.
The former Iowa standout was just one cog in a multi-pronged Indiana scoring attack. Four other Fever players, NaLyssa Smith, Aliyah Boston, Kelsey Mitchell, and Lexie Hull, notched double-digit points. Indiana shot 47 percent from the floor, including a blistering 43 percent from long range, with Clark depositing 3-of-12 threes.
Carrington led the Sun in scoring with 19, followed closely by Alyssa Thomas, who dropped 17 on 7-of-11 from the field. This marks Connecticut’s fifth away game lost this season, falling to 22-8 on the year and snapping their 11-game win streak over Indiana.
With 2:31 to go and the score knotted at 80 apiece, the Fever survived two missed triples from Sun guard Marina Mabrey. After a Mitchell defensive board, Clark guided the ball up the court, blasting by defender Veronica Burton near the logo and dashing to the cup for her 19th point of the night. She would finish the contest with 19 points, five rebounds and five assists.
Two possessions later, Thomas spoiled any late-game heroics when she stepped out of bounds to give the Fever the ball with 24 seconds remaining. After an intentional foul from Carrington, Hull knocked down both of her free throw looks to put the contest on ice.
“Lexie and Kelsey were awesome, but it was a team win,” Clark said. “I thought our defense was really good in the fourth quarter. We got some huge stops.”
Connecticut only scored 14 points in the final session, its lowest output of the game. The Sun connected on 4-of-15 field goals during the period compared to the Fever’s 6-of-15.
The Fever found itself down, 8-2, in the opening minutes before Boston’s turnaround jumper and Clark’s record-shattering shot cut the lead to one. Boston then found Mitchell on a backdoor cut to complete an 8-0 run, giving Indiana the lead. The Fever wouldn’t relinquish the lead until midway through the third quarter when Carrington assisted on a DeWanna Bonner jumper to provide the Sun with a 53-52 edge. The contest was then a back-and-forth affair until Clark and Hull’s baskets put the game away.
Indiana has nine games remaining on its schedule. The WNBA playoffs are set to begin Sept. 22.