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Washington Post
4 hours ago
- Sport
- Washington Post
WNBA adds fines, flagrant-2 foul after dustups in Fever-Sun game
In the wake of the skirmishes that marked Tuesday's game in Indiana between the Fever and the Connecticut Sun, the WNBA has augmented a pair of penalties issued by the officials. A technical foul assessed to Connecticut's Marina Mabrey after she pushed Fever star Caitlin Clark to the floor was upgraded to a flagrant-2 foul, the league confirmed Wednesday, meaning Mabrey will receive the standard fine that accompanies a flagrant-2. Indiana's Sophie Cunningham, who received a flagrant-2 during the game after committing a hard foul against the Sun's Jacy Sheldon, was levied an additional fine. The league did not disclose the amount. No further punishments were given Wednesday to Sheldon and teammate Lindsay Allen, who were ejected from the game after tangling with Cunningham, or to Clark and Connecticut's Tina Charles, who received technical fouls for the incident in which Mabrey shoved Clark. That sequence also resulted in a flagrant-1 for Sheldon after officials reviewed footage of her making contact with Clark's face. The WNBAdeclined to issue any suspensions related to the chippy contest, which Indiana won by an 88-71 margin, or any postgame commentary. Fever Coach Stephanie White was particularly critical of the officials for not getting 'control of the ballgame,' as she saw it, before it got too physical. After asserting at a postgame news conference that WNBA players are 'faster, they're better, they're bigger, they're stronger,' White said, 'Everybody's getting better — except the officials.' Clark, seated next to White at the dais, nodded. First-year Sun Coach Rachid Meziane — who replaced White late last year after she parted ways with Connecticut and joined the Fever — told reporters Tuesday that Cunningham's foul was 'stupid' and 'disrespectful,' adding that Sheldon and Allen 'did nothing' to merit being ejected. Asked if he was surprised that Mabrey was not ejected from the game for shoving Clark, Meziane replied he was not, reasoning that Mabrey's reaction was not 'very big' and that she had 'just tried to be between two players.' The players to whom Meziane was referring were Clark and Sheldon, who made additional contact with each other after Sheldon initially struck Clark's face. The pair's heated interaction drew other players to the scene, at which point Mabrey came up and bumped an unsuspecting Clark to the court. As soon as Clark was sent sprawling, Sun play-by-play announcer Brendan Glasheen said on the game broadcast, 'If the officials saw that, Marina Mabrey is going to get ejected.' Instead, after reviewing the sequence, they gave Mabrey a technical foul. Had the officials given her the flagrant-2 she received from the league on Wednesday, Mabrey would have received an automatic ejection. The fracas involving Cunningham, Sheldon and Allen came with less than a minute to go in the game and the Fever up by 17 points. As Sheldon drove into the lane off a steal, Cunningham wrapped her arms around the Connecticut guard to prevent a layup attempt. Cunningham's act, which involved making contact with Sheldon above the shoulders, led to a number of players pushing and shoving along the baseline. The unpleasantness between the teams — who met in the first round of last season's playoffs when the Sun swept the Fever — had begun before halftime of Tuesday's game. Sheldon and Clark were jawing at each other during a second-quarter stoppage in play when Clark lightly pushed Sheldon away, causing other players to intervene. No action was taken by officials for that episode. Kareem Copeland contributed to this report.
National Post
11 hours ago
- Sport
- National Post
Caitlin Clark hit in face, shoved to floor during wild WNBA altercation
Article content Both teams continued to argue while referees tried to keep everyone apart and sort out the testy situation. Article content Clark, Mabrey and Charles were assessed technical fouls while Sheldon was handed a flagrant 1 for the play. Article content After the game, crew chief Ashley Gloss said Sheldon was issued a flagrant because the initial foul was 'unnecessary' and that 'the contact to the face carried a potential for injury.' Article content Gloss also said 'the contact made by Mabrey did not rise to the level of an ejection' and that it 'did not meet the criteria for a flagrant foul penalty two.' Article content Tensions understandably remained high for the rest of the contest, which saw Indiana's Sophie Cunningham commit a hard foul on Sheldon with under a minute to play and the game well out of hand. Article content The chippiness continues at the end of Fever-Sun 😳 Sophie Cunningham with a hard foul on Jacy Sheldon, who took exception to it. — ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) June 18, 2025 Article content The takedown prompted both sides to clash under the Fever basket as refs again had to step in to separate them. Article content In the end, the Fever won the game 88-71 in Clark's second contest back after a quad injury knocked her out of action for several games. Article content After the game, Fever coach Stephanie White shared a harsh criticism of the officiating crew. Article content 'When the officials don't get control of the ballgame, when they allow that stuff to happen, and it's been happening all season long … you've got competitive women who are the best in the world at what they do, and when you allow them to play physical, and you allow these things to happen, they're going to compete, and they're going to have their teammates backs,' White told reporters. Article content 'It's exactly what you expect out of fierce competition. I started talking to the officials in the first quarter, and we knew this was going to happen. You could tell it was going to happen. So they got to get control of it. They got to be better.' Article content
