Caitlin Clark's triple-double leads Fever past Sky as tempers flared between rivals
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Angel Reese had 12 points and 17 rebounds for the Sky, who lost three of four last season to Indiana. Ariel Atkins added 11 points.
But the game was defined by the newest chapter in the Clark-Reese rivalry. This time, it came on a hard foul from Clark across Reese's arm, which jarred the ball loose and knocked Reese to the floor with 4:38 left in the third quarter. When Reese jumped up to confront Clark, Fever center Aliyah Boston stepped between the two players as Clark walked away from the skirmish.
The referees upgraded Clark's foul to a flagrant 1 and assessed technical fouls to Reese and Boston following a replay review.
Caitlin Clark received a flagrant foul on this play.
Aliyah Boston and Angel Reese received offsetting technical fouls.
— ESPN (@espn)
But after Reese made one of two free throws and Courtney Vandersloot made a layup on the ensuing possession, Indiana closed the third quarter on a 9-0 run to take a 65-45 lead. The Sky never really threatened Indiana's lead.
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White earned the first win of her second coaching tenure in her first game back in the state where she won Indiana's 1994-95 Miss Basketball Award and led Purdue to the 1998-99 national championship.
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USA Today
23 minutes ago
- USA Today
Sophie Cunningham thinks the WNBA's physicality against Caitlin Clark is 'too much'
Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham said she thinks the physicality other WNBA players show teammate Caitlin Clark is "too much," her new podcast revealed on Wednesday. Cunningham teamed up with reality television star West Wilson for the first episode of Show Me Something, a new podcast featuring the two good friends and Missouri natives. Before telling her side of the story in the now-infamous dust-up she had with Connecticut Sun guard Jacy Sheldon in June, Cunningham defended Clark even further against her alleged treatment across the league. "You have seen players in our league try to toughen up Caitlin," Cunningham told West on the show. "Even when I wasn't on her team, I know the talks that [the Phoenix Mercury] had in the locker room of, like... 'We're going to show her what the W really is.' You know what I mean? And, I get it to a certain extent, and every rookie coming into the league, that's how you're going to treat them. But there's just more for her. "It's her second year, and now being on her team and seeing it, I'm like, 'What are people doing?' Actually... it's just too much, too much.... I'm over it, and if I'm saying it's too much, then it's probably too much." Some NSFW language to follow. Cunningham also partially blamed being hungry and tired for her skirmish with Sheldon, which she confirmed was retaliation for the scuffle earlier in the game between Clark and Sheldon that escalated. Clark was apparently appreciative for Cunningham sticking up for her. "I think she was like, 'Finally!'," Cunningham told West about Clark's reaction after the game in the locker room, and Cunningham said the moment brought the team together in terms of having each other's backs. While, sure, there's an inherent irony to Cunningham saying people are playing Clark too aggressively when she sparked a brouhaha with Sheldon in retaliation. However, the added physical play seems to be a league-wise issue and could be contributing to injuries like Clark's multiple ailments this season. Cunningham doesn't seem all that bothered to speak her mind, so this podcast should give the world plenty of more unfiltered thoughts from one of the league's more vocal players on hot-button issues.
Fox News
an hour ago
- Fox News
Sophie Cunningham opens up on ex-team's treatment of Caitlin Clark, and infamous fight that chipped her tooth
Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham, the popular "enforcer" teammate of Caitlin Clark, gave an inside look into the treatment of Clark by other teams, and the consequences of the tension it has created during WNBA games. Cunningam revealed how her former team, the Phoenix Mercury, planned to play Clarkf during the phenom's rookie season in 2024. Cunningham played her first five seasons in Phoenix before leaving to join the Fever this past offseason. "You have seen players in our league try to, like, toughen up Caitlin… Even when I wasn't on her team, I know the talks that Phoenix had in the locker room, like 'no, we're going to show her what the W really is,' and I get it to a certain extent, and every rookie coming into the league, that's how you're going to treat em, but there's just more for her," Cunningham said on her podcast. "And now being on her team and seeing it, I'm like 'what are people doing,' actually, it's just too much, it's too much. I'm over it, and if I think it's too much, it's probably too much." Cunningham was on the other side of the situation when she started a fight to defend Clark during a game against the Connecticut Sun earlier this season. Cunningham said that after the game, Clark exclaimed "finally!" in the locker room. "In the locker room, she goes, I think she's like, 'Finally!'" Cunningham said. "But I think it kind of had our team together as a whole. Everyone was like, 'we do have to protect eachother.'" The scuffle went down in Connecticut on June 17, when Cunningham committed a hard foul on Sun guard Jacy Sheldon. Sheldon poked Clark in the eye earlier in the game, and then fellow Sun player Marina Mabrey shoved Clark to the ground. So Cunningham chased Sheldon in the fourth quarter to commit a payback foul. "Last second-intrusive thought, I was like 'f--- it,'" Cunningham said of her decision to instigate the fight. Their heated exchange turned into a shoving match before players from both teams came over to break it up. Cunningham, Sheldon and Sun guard Lindsay Allen were ejected from the game with about 40 seconds left before the Fever took home the victory. But Cunningham alleges that the interaction left its mark on her face. "She didn't mean to do it, but she did chip my tooth," Cunningham said. "It's a little discolored… we literally cracked teeth in the middle of the game, like, face-to-face. "There's a couple players on their team that just do a little bit extra stuff." Cunningham also claimed she was fined "like, $900," by the WNBA for the fight. But also claims it was "her moment" as her followers on Instagram and TikTok quickly surged past one million in the days following the game. Cunningham previously claimed she was also fined $500 for a TikTok that jokingly criticized WNBA referees. She previously called out referees just days after the June 17 fight while speaking to reporters, for not protecting Clark, when she had to first address the fight publicly. "During that, it was just part of the game. I think the refs had a lot to do with that. It was a build-up for a couple years now of them just not protecting the star player of the WNBA," Cunningham said. "At the end of the day, I'm going to protect my teammates. That's what I do." Cunningham has become a folk hero to many, and her popularity has skyrocketed in the days since the fight. With Cunningham earning the nickname "the enforcer" for the Fever, fans counting on her to protect Caitlin Clark can rest easy knowing she is a black belt in the Korean martial art of Taekwondo. She earned the black belt at the age of 6. Her father Jim played football at the University of Missouri, and she ended up following in her dad's footsteps on the football field. A 2014 article by the Columbia Missourian reported Cunningham was the first female to ever score any points for the team in history, when she kicked two of four extra points in place of the team's regular kicker, who had torn an ACL. Cunningham even handled kickoff duties. "I was so nervous," Cunningham told the outlet. "I mean, I've never played football before in all my life. Right when I got the ball (on the opening kickoff), I couldn't hear anything. I just put the ball down and kicked it." Cunningham comes from a family of farmers and credits that upbringing for the person she is today, according to five-part feature series by the University of Missouri. "So much of our success goes back to what we learned here," Cunningham said of working on the farm. "We loved coming out to the farm to help. We found out how to work hard and work together. It made us farm strong."
Fox Sports
an hour ago
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Leagues Cup Returns With a Bang — And a New, Slimmed-Down Look
The third edition of the expanded Leagues Cup tournament — the World Cup-style competition that pits Major League Soccer clubs against their counterparts from Mexico — kicked off on Tuesday night with six games across the U.S. and Canada. Will this be the year that Liga MX finally breaks MLS's stranglehold on the trophy? The last two editions of the Leagues Cup featured all-MLS finals. Lionel Messi memorably led Inter Miami to the 2023 title before ever playing an official MLS match for the Herons, scoring 10 goals in seven appearances — including the decider against Nashville. Last year, the Columbus Crew topped LAFC in a rematch of the previous fall's MLS Cup final. But a format shift this year favors the squads from south of the Rio Grande. LEAGUES CUP PREDICTIONS, TEAMS TO WATCH AS MLS-LIGA MX RIVALRY RENEWS First, after every MLS franchise participated in the Leagues Cup in each of the last two years, only the 18 American and Canadian teams that qualified for the 2024 MLS Cup playoffs are involved (except for the Vancouver Whitecaps, who were replaced by expansion San Diego FC) joining all 18 Liga MX clubs. Second, there are no more intra-league matches: MLS sides and those from Mexico won't face opponents from their own circuit during the first phase of the Leagues Cup, or in the quarterfinals. That switch probably also benefits the Liga MX teams, which are not bound by the strict roster and salary restrictions that limit the competitiveness of MLS entrants in international play. Tuesday's results suggest as much, with Mexican sides winning five of the six contests, including three-goal victories by Puebla over NYCFC and Tigers over the Houston Dynamo. Montreal picked up MLS's lone triumph, with the Eastern Conference's lowest points-getter stunning James Rodriguez-led Leon on penalties at State Saputo following a 1-1 tie. "Players will talk, and I guarantee some of the talk was that this isn't fair that every single club from MLS and we only have 18," National Soccer Hall of Famer DaMarcus Beasley, a former standout for Puebla who retired as a member of the Dynamo, told FOX Sports in an interview. "If I play for Puebla and I'm going to United States to play against Toluca, iit's like a league game. It's not that much excitement to get up for because I've been playing them for six months, yeah. So I think the new format changes that. That every single game is against a different league makes it more exciting for players and for fans." The Leagues Cup really picks up steam on Wednesday, when some of the sexier matches begin. Rodrigo de Paul, Messi's World Cup-winning Argentina teammate, is expected to make his debut for Miami against Atlas. Club America, Mexico's biggest club, visits Real Salt Lake and rising USMNT talent Diego Luna. There's also a doubleheader on FS1, with Orlando City-Pumas followed by Portland Timbers-San Luis (coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET). The tournament's breakneck pace continues for more than a week, with seven match days of at least five games each between July 31 and Aug. 8. This endless summer of soccer won't conclude until the Aug. 31 Leagues Cup final, after which teams on both sides of the Mexican border will turn their attention back to their respective domestic leagues. It's too soon to know if the new format will capture the imagination of the ticket-buying and media-consuming public the way the inaugural event did upon Messi's arrival two summers ago. But the latest version should still provide a more accurate reflection of where MLS and Mexico's top division stand in relation to each other and perhaps invigorate the millions of fans who have long made Liga MX the most-watched soccer property in the U.S. ahead of England's Premier League. While Mexico's decades-long dominance of the Concacaf Champions Cup, particularly on home soil, remains the obvious barometer, the business end of that tourney falls early in the MLS season and thus further diminishes its chances. On the other hand, past Leagues Cup champs Miami and Columbus surely benefitted from the fact that no Leagues Cup games are held in Mexico, where the record of American and Canadian clubs is abysmal. If this year's format switch levels the playing field for the visitors as intended, we could be in for the most competitive — and compelling — Leagues Cup yet. Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports who has covered United States men's and women's national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ ByDougMcIntyre . recommended Item 1 of 2 Get more from the Leagues Cup Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
