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Caitlin Clark poked in eye, shoved to floor during Sun-Fever dustup

FaceProfileby:Thomas Goldkamp•06/18/25
caitlin clark
Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

Tensions flared in a game between the Indiana Fever and the Connecticut Sun on Tuesday night. And following an inadvertent foul, star Caitlin Clark was hit with a nasty shoulder that nearly triggered an ejection.

Clark was dribbling into the frontcourt, where she was defended by Jacy Sheldon. Sheldon and Clark had gotten into it earlier in the game.

As Sheldon attempted to prevent entry into the lane, her arm accidentally shot forward and caught Clark in the face. Refs immediately blew the whistle.

Immediately after the contact, Sheldon got into the chest of Caitlin Clark and bumped her, sending her toward another pocket of players. At that point, as Clark was holding her face and complaining about the contact, forward Marina Mabrey delivered a shoulder, sending Clark tumbling to the floor. You can watch it below.

After the refs convened and went to the monitors, the initial foul by Sheldon was ruled a flagrant. The foul by Mabrey was not ruled an ejection, so she was allowed to remain in the game. Clark, Mabrey and Tina Charles were all assessed technical fouls for the dustup.

That decision shocked the NBA TV announcers calling the game, who thought that surely Mabrey would have been ejected. Fans at the game heartily booed Mabrey following the decision.

The game had been chippy for quite some time ahead of that sequence, though. Clark had earlier gotten into a dust-up in the game with Sheldon, with the latter tasked with defending the second-year star. That’s obviously not an easy task, but Sheldon was holding her own for the most part through the first three quarters.

Still, the two were seen verbally sparring earlier in the game. And at one point the two shoved each other a bit.

At the time of this writing, Caitlin Clark had 15 points and six assists. Indiana led 60-45 with 3:13 remaining in the third quarter.