The Indiana Fever defeated the Connecticut Sun, 88-71, on June 17 to earn a spot in the 2025 WNBA Commissioner’s Cup Championship Game. But the biggest story to emerge from that game was a skirmish involving Caitlin Clark. Rough play involving the former Iowa star continued and led to multiple technical fouls, two flagrant fouls, and three player ejections.
It all started midway through the third quarter with Indiana holding a 10-point lead. Clark was dribbling and was fouled and poked in the eye by defender Jacy Sheldon, who has a bit of history with Clark as the two faced off numerous times in the Big Ten when Clark was at Iowa and Sheldon played for Ohio State. While the poke in the eye appeared to be an accident, Clark responded by then pushing Sheldon, which set off a chain of events.
Sheldon’s Sun teammate, Marina Mabrey, came to her defense and shoved Clark to the ground. A referee rushed over to break up the fracas before immediately signaling for a review of the play. After a review, Sheldon was issued a Flagrant 1 for contacting Clark’s face, while Clark and Mabrey were both assessed technicals for their respective pushes. Connecticut’s Tina Charles also received a tech for making contact with Clark.
But this altercation was just the appetizer for what would come next. Late in the fourth quarter, and with the game already out of hand as the Fever held a 17-point lead with less than one minute remaining, opposing players got into it again. Sheldon stole the ball and only had Indiana’s Sophie Cunningham between her and the open court. As Sheldon neared the basket, Cunningham wrapped her arms around Sheldon’s shoulders, preventing her from even attempting a layup, and threw her to the ground.
Sheldon went to the ground, then got up just as quickly and got into Cunningham’s face. The two jostled with each other before players, refs, and team personnel rushed over to break up the altercation. The incident occurred right under the basket and nearly spilled into the crowd, with security personnel holding their hands out wide to separate the players from the fans.
The result of the melee saw Cunningham assessed a Flagrant 2, which meant an immediate ejection. Also, Sheldon and teammate Lindsay Allen were deemed to be escalators of the situation and were both ejected. The final 46 seconds of the game were played without incident, but in total, the game featured five technical fouls to five different players, a Flagrant 1, a Flagrant 2, and three ejections. Sheldon was the most penalized player as she received a tech, a flagrant, and an ejection.
During the second altercation, the color commentator said, “I’m blaming this all on the officials tonight,” and that was a shared sentiment from both teams. Fever coach Stephanie White said that poor officiating is rampant in the WNBA, and that she could sense something like this was brewing.
“I started talking to the officials in the first quarter, and we knew this was going to happen,” White said postgame. “You could tell it was going to happen. So they’ve got to get control of it. They’ve got to be better. … It’s a league-wide issue. Bad officiating is bad officiating.”
Connecticut player Olivia Nelson-Ododa also blamed the referees.
“Obviously, it was a physical game tonight. I think when things aren’t managed well to begin with that it tends to get out of hand, and that’s what happened,” she told reporters. “When you’re not managing the game properly, this is what happens.”
Clark, who finished with 20 points and six assists in her second game back from injury, did not speak to reporters following the game. The reigning Rookie of the Year had missed five games due to a quad injury, and Indiana went 2-3 in her absence. Indiana improved to 4-2 when Clark plays, and the team has a 17.8-point average margin of victory in her wins.
The on-court altercations overshadowed the fact that Indiana clinched a spot in the final of the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup, which is an in-season tournament akin to the NBA Cup. Indiana won the East side of the Commissioner’s Cup bracket with a 4-1 record, the same as the New York Liberty, but the Fever defeated New York on Saturday to get the tiebreaker.
The Minnesota Lynx will represent the West in the 2025 WNBA Commissioner’s Cup Final, which will take place on July 1 in Minneapolis. The Lynx are the reigning Cup champions, while this will be the first Commissioner’s Cup Final appearance for the Indiana Fever franchise. The teams haven’t faced off this season, but Minnesota won two of three matchups last year.
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