UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — Caitlin Clark had a rough playoff debut, suffering a black eye after someone accidentally poked her early in the game.
The Indiana Fever star rookie missed 10 of her first 11 shots before finishing with 11 points and eight assists in the 93-69 defeat to the Connecticut Sun on Sunday.
The APs Rookie of the Year refused to use the eye poke at the beginning of the first quarter as an excuse for her bad night.
“Hit me pretty good in the eye; I don’t think it affected me,” she said. “I felt like I had good shots, they just didn’t go in. That was a tough time. I thought I had some really good chances. Three pretty open threes in the first half, that’s what you usually hit.”
Clark’s shooting woes continued into the third quarter before the Fever called a timeout. The young star hit the bench with a chair in frustration. That seemed to spur her on a bit, as she came out and hit her next three shots. Unfortunately for Indiana, Connecticut defender Marina Mabrey came on hot, scoring 11 of her 27 points in the third quarter, and the Fever never recovered from that.
“My shot felt like it was right there,” said Clark, who finished the game 4 of 17 from the field, missing 11 of her 13 three-point attempts. “It’s so frustrating for a shooter when it doesn’t go in. That’s the (stinking) thing about it. … We were right there, I think we cut it to eight, but then they came back and hit us with a three.”
The Sun rotated their defense when it came to guarding Clark, with 6-foot-4 DeWanna Bonner frequently being assigned that role.
“I have accepted the challenge, in the next game she will go full steam ahead,” said Bonner.
Clark gets another chance in Game 2 on Wednesday and hopes to send the series back to Indiana for a decisive third game on Friday.
The WNBA’s leading single-season assist provider also made her regular-season debut in May in Connecticut. She struggled in that game, too, missing 10 of her 15 shots.
Even though this was an away game, as it has been for most of the season, the Fever had a strong following in Connecticut. It felt like the sellout crowd was almost evenly split, and they cheered almost everything positive that Clark and Indiana did.
“Caitlin draws a lot of fans. She’s incredible,” Mabrey said. “They can come and see whoever they want, but at the end of the day we’re here to win a championship.”
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