Caitlin Clark was in the middle of a fiery scene between the Fever and Sun on Tuesday night.
Clark, while dribbling with the ball in the offensive end of the court during the third quarter of Indiana’s 88-71 win at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, was poked in the eye by Jacy Sheldon.
The Indiana star took exception and bumped and shoved Sheldon.
Refs gave Caitlin Clark a tech for getting jumped
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— BricksCenter (@BricksCenter) June 18, 2025
That’s when the Sun came to the defense of Sheldon, with Tina Charles coming close to Clark and wagging her index finger, while Marina Mabrey was more physical, pushing Clark to the floor.
After all was said and done, Clark, Mabrey and Charles were all assessed technical fouls and Sheldon was handed a flagrant 1.
Clark hit both flagrant free throws as she finished the game with 20 points and six assists.
After the game, crew chief Ashley Gloss said during the pool report that Sheldon was issued a flagrant because the initial foul was “unnecessary” and that “the contact to the face carried a potential for injury.
Nevertheless, Gloss said Mabrey’s foul did not warrant a flagrant.
“The contact made by Mabrey did not rise to the level of an ejection,” Gloss said. “Additionally, [it] did not meet the criteria for a flagrant foul penalty two.”
Fever coach Stephanie White made clear after the game she was not happy with the officiating crew.
“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.
“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.”
But things got even more testy with 46.1 seconds left in the game when Sheldon was fouled hard by Indiana’s Sophie Cunningham while going for a layup.
Connecticut’s Lindsay Allen immediately stepped in and got close to Cunningham before Sheldon got up off the floor and joined in as the team converged in a big shoving match.
At the end of it, Cunningham, Sheldon and Allen were all ejected.
Tuesday marked Clark’s second game after returning from a strained quad.
The chippiness continues at the end of Fever-Sun
Sophie Cunningham with a hard foul on Jacy Sheldon, who took exception to it.pic.twitter.com/EDdnYx8LLw
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She scored 32 in her return on Saturday in a win over the Liberty.
