Caitlin Clark on Chennedy Carter's hard foul: 'It's just not a basketball play'
The final 20 seconds of the third quarter of Saturday’s WNBA matchup between the Sky and Fever got chippy after Chicago’s Chennedy Carter appeared to hip-check Indiana’s Caitlin Clark before an inbound pass.
Carter had just scored her 12th point of the game, cashing in on a 17-foot jump shot when Clark was set to receive the ensuing inbound. The Sky guard was aggressive in what appeared to be the start of a full-court press on Clark upon receiving the ball. Instead, the two collided and Clark fell to the ground.
“It’s just not a basketball play,” Clark said during an in-game interview after the third quarter. “Gotta play through it. That’s what playing basketball is at this level.”
It was issued as an away-from-the-ball foul and Clark received two free throws on the other end of the floor before the end of the quarter.
On the previous possession, Clark and Carter had a few words to say to each other coming back down the court. It’s unclear whether this was the first seemingly hostile interaction between the two during the matchup.
The Fever would go on to defeat the Sky 71-70 to win their second game of the season. Chicago’s Marina Mabrey was unable to tie the game in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter after splitting her shots at the charity stripe. Indiana would run out the clock on the next possession to ice the one-point win.
Clark finished the game with 11 points, eight rebounds and six assists while Carter scored a game-high 19 points on 8 of 12 shooting to go with six assists of her own.
However, this isn’t the first bit drama that Clark has found herself involved with since arriving in the WNBA. In fact, this isn’t the first time this week that something occurred with Clark at the center of it.
On Thursday night against the Seattle Storm, Clark got a little heated with Victoria Vivians of the Seattle Storm. The two briefly bumped chests before being separated and words were exchanged, after Clark buried a three and stared Vivians down.
There was a brief stoppage in play after both players were separated. She was restrained by her teammate, Aliyah Boston. It was good for Clark’s third technical foul in nine games.
While she was only on the receiving end of Saturday’s altercation with Carter, it’s clear that the rookie isn’t backing down from her competition in the WNBA.