Sports
Caitlin Clark thanks ref after tech for ‘disrespectful’ act, claims another WNBA record
Caitlin Clark had an unconventional reaction to being hit with a technical foul.
The Indiana Fever star and WNBA Rookie of the Year favorite actually wanted to thank the referee who gave her the tech to begin with, which may or may not have had a hint of sarcasm.
Clark earned a fifth technical foul on the year — a seventh would give her an automatic one-game suspension.
The Iowa native slammed the stanchion after missing a 3-pointer with 7:14 left in the third quarter and her rage netted her the tech, which she discussed following the Fever’s assertive 92-75 win over the Seattle Storm in which she broke the WNBA rookie assist record on Sunday afternoon.
“I got a technical for basically being mad at myself because I missed a 3, and then I went and hit the backboard, and he told me it was disrespectful to the game of basketball,” Clark said. “…It reminded me of the technical I got in college, where I said ‘damn it,’ where it’s like a personal frustration. Had nothing to do with my team, had nothing to do with the reffing, had nothing to do with the other team. It’s just because I’m a competitor.”
Clark added that the technical caused her to play harder as the game resumed.
“But I think he fired me up to continue to play a lot harder,” she added. “I thought we got a lot better after that. I want to thank him for that. But overall, I thought once we got to that media timeout around five minutes in the third quarter, I thought we all kind of took a breath. It was all chaos there for two and a half minutes.”
Clark continued, “I think I could have done a better job of regaining my cool but that’s like the fire and passion that just gets me going, its just finding a way to channel that, use that, and I think I did a real good job of that at the end of the third quarter, start of the fourth quarter.”
In the game, Clark finished with 23 points and nine assists, though she only shot 3-for-10 from deep and had five turnovers, hence the earlier frustration.
The nine assists gave Clark 232 for the season to move her past Ticha Penicheiro’s 224 for the Sacramento Monarchs in 1998 to set a new WNBA rookie record
The Fever outscored the Storm 33-17 in the fourth quarter, which propelled them to victory, as did a career-high 22 points and six 3-pointers from Lexie Hull off the bench, and an explosive 27 points from Kelsey Mitchell, one away from her season-best.
The officials on hand were Roy Gulbeyan, Tyler Ricks and Jenna Reneau.
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