Rookie Clark stars, unable to keep Fever’s dream alive

[Pelican Press 0]

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Rookie Clark stars, unable to keep Fever’s dream alive

Alyssa Thomas had 19 points and 13 assists to help the Connecticut Sun secure a 87-81 win and sweep Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever out of the WNBA playoffs.

The third-seeded Sun will now face either Minnesota or Phoenix in the semi-finals, which begin on Sunday.

Clark played much better in Game 2 than she did in her post-season debut. The Rookie of the Year finished with 25 points and nine assists on Wednesday night, but it wasn’t enough. Aliyah Boston added 16 points and 19 rebounds.

Indiana got off to a fast start and were up 14-6 before the Sun scored the final 11 points of the first quarter to go up by three.

The run continued to start the second as Connecticut went up 26-16 on Dijonai Carrington’s layup with 7:32 left and the Sun finished the half leading 41-34. Carrington was honoured before the game as the league’s Most Improved Player.

A Boston layup with 2:05 left in the match gave Indiana a 77-75 advantage but DeWanna Bonner, who was playing in her WNBA record matching 82nd playoff game to match Lindsay Whalen, answered with a three-pointer 14 seconds later.

Neither team scored on their next few possessions until Marina Mabrey hit a triple from the wing with 45.5 seconds left to give the Sun an 81-77 lead, which they extended.

Clark had a record-breaking season on and off the court. She broke the single-season assist record as well as setting the league’s individual game mark with 19. Clark also broke the rookie record for points in a season, although she did do it in 40 games.

Clark and her fellow rookies have been a ratings and attendance boon for the WNBA. Despite the blowout loss in Game 1, fans tuned in as the game averaged 1.8 million viewers according to ESPN, making it the WNBA’s most watched playoff game since the 2000 Finals.

Six different league television partners set viewership records this year for its highest viewed WNBA game. All of those games included the Fever.

Thanks to Clark, Indiana led the league in attendance both at home and on the road. The Fever averaged 17,036 at home and over 15,000 on the road. Four teams moved home games to ******* arenas when Indiana came to town to accommodate more fans.

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