Oops, she did it again. Caitlin Clark continues to shatter the mold and earned another WNBA record on Wednesday night in a basketball mecca, Indianapolis.
The Fever star swished a 3-pointer early in Indiana’s battle with the second place Connecticut Sun, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Wednesday. That basket officially broke a tie with the Atlanta Dream’s Rhyne Howard and gave Clark the league’s rookie 3-point record. Clark has now buried 86 shots from the great beyond this season, which surpassed the 85 that Howard hit during her rookie campaign in 2022.
On Wednesday night there were a few stars on hand to take in the action, including gold medal gymnast Simone Biles and talk show icon David Letterman.
Just three minutes into the opening quarter, Clark sank her patented step-back three over Sun guard DiJonai Carrington to hit the milestone.
“I just think it speaks to the way we play offense,” Clark said of her 3-point success continuing with the Fever. “Just fast, up-tempo. I feel like I’m definitely capable of shooting it a little bit better.”
Clark put up 19 points in Wednesday’s game, going 3-for-12 from the perimeter and 7-for-17 overall. The contest went down to the final seconds, with the Fever taking a slim 82-80 lead over the Sun in the final minutes off a bunny from Clark. The Fever went on to win 84-80. The victory ended the Fever’s 11-game losing streak to the Sun.
“The maturity and the toughness that my players showed tonight was just incredible,” Fever coach Christie Sides said. “We’re watching them grow up, from where we started to where we are now. Connecticut is an incredible team. I’m so proud of these players.”
Embed from Getty ImagesThe night did not belong to Clark alone. Her teammate, Kelsey Mitchell made some history of her own, becoming the first Fever player to score 20-plus points in five consecutive games. Mitchell, the No. 2 draft pick in 2018 out of Ohio State, had 23 points. She has been a woman on a mission, scoring 128 in her past five games, as Indiana has gone 4-1.
“That’s really, really hard to do in this league,” Clark said of Mitchell. “In my eyes, she’s one of the most underrated players. Every night for her is very consistent. She shows up, she performs … she’s always somebody I can count on, and it’s been a lot of fun to build our chemistry over the course of this season.”
On Monday night, Clark made four 3-pointers in the Fever’s 84-79 win over the Dream. She tied the record with a step-back 3-pointer in the fourth quarter of that victory in Georgia, which she ironically hit over the out stretched arms of Howard.
Clark entered Wednesday on a high note after winning the WNBA Player of the Week award. She is averaging 18 points and a league-high 8.2 assists per game this season. She is also averaging 2.8 3’s per game, which is tied for the fourth-best in the WNBA. The former Iowa star became the fastest player in league history to record 500 points and 200 assists earlier this month, which is something no rookie has done before.
Clark shot just shy of 38% from downtown during her unbelievable collegiate career with the Hawkeyes, where she became the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer both in men’s and women’s basketball while leading the program to back-to-back national championship games. She averaged a career-high 5.2 made 3-pointers during her senior season.
The Fever came into the matchup against the Sun with a 14-16 record, though they have been victorious in five of their last seven to keep themselves in the playoff hunt. Their win over the Dream marked the first time that the team had won 14 games in a single season since 2016 with Tamika Catchings leading them. The Fever sit in seventh place in the league standings.
