Stephanie White Replacement Shares Strong Comments on First Career Win
Stephanie White Replacement Shares Strong Comments on First Career Win originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
The Indiana Fever were once again without Caitlin Clark on Saturday when they took on Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky on the road on Saturday. But they were also without another key member in the organization.
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Head coach Stephanie White missed the game due to personal reasons, and assistant Austin Kelly was tapped to be the acting head coach for this game. Things went well for him and his team, as it jumped out to an early lead and kept increasing its advantage en route to a 79-52 win.
Kelly talked about getting his first victory as a head coach after the game.
"Being in that locker room at the end, it means a lot," he said. "It's something I'll never forget. First win. They did a hell of a job for 40 minutes of executing the game plan, and I thought when we had lulls, the communication out there was really good, that they picked each other up when it was needed."
Indiana hired Kelly to be an assistant coach in November. He had spent the previous two seasons as an assistant under White on the Connecticut Sun. Before that, he had been an assistant and recruiter at the college level for multiple schools.
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He once played a season of college basketball at Georgia Southwestern, and he was even a moderately successful wide receiver with the Duke Blue Devils for four years.
Indiana Fever guard Aari McDonald (2) takes the ball to the basket against the Washington Mystics at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.Grace Smith/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
On Saturday, Indiana got the job done with defense. It held the Sky to 32.1% shooting from the field and 20% from 3-point range while forcing 19 turnovers and scoring 23 points off those turnovers. The Sky didn't have a single player who scored in double figures.
Offensively, Kelsey Mitchell led Indiana with 17 points. New addition Aari McDonald, who was signed following the injuries to Clark and Sophie Cunningham, contributed 12 points off the bench.
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As a result, the Fever now have a respectable 4-4 record with Clark nearing a return from her quad ailment.
Related: Cameras Catch Caitlin Clark's Reaction to Angel Reese's Mistake on Saturday
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 8, 2025, where it first appeared.
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New York Times
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The Drive
an hour ago
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The latest car news, reviews, and features. I remember people asking me about my favorite sport when I was a kid. I'd just say 'car racing,' never bothering to specify it was Formula 1 because no one in the U.S. knew what the hell that was back then. Nine out of 10 times, people would say, 'Oh, you like NASCAR!' That's not the case anymore, as F1 has officially broken into American culture. The Liberty Media-owned racing series is as recognizable across the country as the NFL, and I don't need any silly studies or viewership statistics to prove this. All I need to validate this theory is the KFC commercial embedded below, promoting the KFC Fill Up Box Box Box. Get it? Box box box. What's more American than KFC? Oh, what's that—McDonald's, you say? Well, rumor has it the Golden Arches is also coming out with an F1-themed Happy Meal. I know what you're thinking: the KFC commercial is promoting the F1 movie and not exactly the F1 series. Okay, sure, but that's pretty much the same thing, given that the film was intended to serve as a marketing tool for the series from day one. The Joseph Kosinski-directed movie features Brad Pitt and Damson Idris as headliners, and took two years to finish, while an '11th F1 team' traveled the world for 16 months filming real on-track scenes during actual racing weekends. Some reports peg the total cost of the movie at around $300 million. As someone who grew up with F1 since the late '80s and has witnessed its incredible growth in the U.S. thanks to Netflix's Drive to Survive, these advertisements are a finish line of sorts. F1 has made it into mainstream media, and now into the marketing-hungry fast food industry. It simply doesn't get more American than that. F1, you've arrived. Got a tip? Email us at tips@
