Caitlin Clark makes WNBA debut with Fever at exhibition game against Wings

ARLINGTON, Texas — Greater than three hours earlier than Caitlin Clark made her WNBA debut with the Indiana Fever in an exhibition sport towards the Dallas Wings on Friday evening, some followers among the many sellout crowd had been lined up exterior the world wearing No. 22 College of Iowa jerseys.

And Clark placed on a present.

The 2-time NCAA girls’s basketball participant of the 12 months led all first-half scorers with 16 factors in 16 minutes and completed with a team-high 21 factors within the Fever’s 79-76 loss. She was 6 of 15 from the sphere together with 5 of 13 from deep, and had three rebounds, two assists, 4 fouls and 5 turnovers.

Her 21 factors tied for the sport excessive with Dallas rookie Jaelyn Brown.

She even had an opportunity to ship the sport into additional time. Dallas’ profitable basket by Arike Ogunbowale got here with three seconds left and Clark’s 3-point try from the suitable nook on the buzzer fell quick.

Clark’s first professional basket got here on a 28-foot 3-pointer close to the left sideline lower than a minute into play. She hit 4 3-pointers within the half and added two of three free throws when fouled on a shot behind the arc.

She was scoreless within the third interval and sat for the ultimate 5 minutes after gathering her fourth foul.

Christina Edge, who lived in Iowa for 35 years earlier than transferring to the Dallas suburb of Rowlett three years in the past, was one of many followers who confirmed up early. She stated arriving that early on the College of Texas-Arlington’s Faculty Park Heart would improve her probabilities of touchdown a photograph with the basketball phenomenon who was the two-time nationwide participant of the 12 months with the Iowa Hawkeyes.

“It’s my birthday,” stated Edge, who stated her son gave her the ticket as a birthday reward, “and I simply desire a image together with her!” She carried a brilliant yellow posterboard signal promoting that plea.

Pailynn Amos, 9, was additionally exterior the world carrying a yellow Clark jersey together with her personal signal — “After I develop up I wanna be similar to her.”

Rebecca Amos, Pailynn’s mom, made the roughly hour-long drive from the city of Ennis.

“I watched her (on TV) like loopy,” Rebecca stated. “So, she (Pailynn) simply type of grew to her. Then we had been like, ‘Wow, now she’s in Dallas.’ We may truly go see her!”

Clark acquired a rousing ovation earlier than tipoff when launched with Indiana’s starters.

Whereas Clark had loads of followers in attendance, Wings followers didn’t give her a go. As she dribbled previous her defender at midcourt in the course of the first half, one lady shouted, “Get her! Get her!”

The WNBA’s first preseason sport was performed the identical evening that the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks hosted the LA Clippers in Recreation 6 of a first-round playoff sequence about 20 miles away.

The exhibition sport was the primary of two for the Fever earlier than Clark will make her regular-season debut on Could 14 on the Connecticut Solar.

The sport bought out all 6,251 seats quickly after it was introduced on Dallas’ schedule, particularly requested by Wings president and CEO Greg Bibb quickly after Clark declared in February she would go away school for the WNBA with one 12 months of eligibility remaining. Indiana gained the lottery for this 12 months’s first choose final December.

A neighborhood tv crew recorded the Fever’s arrival at DFW Worldwide Airport on Thursday. Throughout Clark’s media session on Friday morning, she addressed the request to signal a pair’s ultrasound image.

“That was undoubtedly a primary,” she stated with amusing.

“It’s actually nice that Caitlin’s bringing all this consideration to girls’s basketball, so I’m actually grateful for that,” Wings heart Kalani Brown stated. “It’s nice for our sport.”

“That is what girls’s basketball has deserved for fairly a while now,” stated Fever heart Aliyah Boston, final season’s WNBA rookie of the 12 months and the ladies’s collegiate participant of the 12 months earlier than Clark’s run. “It’s higher late than by no means. I’m actually excited for what’s to come back for this league.”

The Wings final month stated that they had bought out their season-ticket allotment, which accounts for about 2,500 seats.

Indiana will return to Faculty Park Heart to play twice in the course of the common season, on July 17 within the final sport earlier than the WNBA’s almost month-long Olympic hiatus and in the future after the MLB All-Star Recreation is performed on the Texas Rangers’ dwelling stadium lower than three miles away. The Fever additionally play there Sept. 1.