Caitlin Clark returned to the hardwood in iconic fashion Sunday, leading the Indiana Fever to a dominant 108-44 preseason win over Brazil\u2019s national team \u2014 and breaking a WNBA record in the process.
\nThe 23-year-old sensation played her first game in over 200 days and did it at Iowa\u2019s Carver Hawkeye Arena, drawing a sold-out crowd and smashing the WNBA\u2019s all-time record for average ticket price.
\nAccording to ESPN, seats went for an eye-watering $670, the highest since data tracking began in 2015.
\nClark delivered 16 points, six rebounds, and five assists \u2014 and dropped a trademark 36-foot three-pointer from the logo, nearly from the same spot where she broke the NCAA scoring record.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know if I shoot 36-footers every day, but 30-plus for sure,\u201d Clark said. \u201cYou don\u2019t always realise where you are. It was spur-of-the-moment.\u201d
\nHer return followed a wave of commentary after Angel Reese\u2019s mother took a swipe at Clark\u2019s fanbase online, contrasting Clark\u2019s sell-out crowd with a less-than-half-full arena for Reese\u2019s return to LSU.
\n\u201cAww that certain fan base looking in the stands celebrating \u2018attendance\u2019 while others are looking up in the rafters celebrating championship banners,\u201d she posted. \u201cWe ain\u2019t the same.\u201d
\nWhile the Reese vs. Clark chatter dominated headlines, both stars performed well on court.
\nReese had 15 points and 10 rebounds in 16 minutes Friday night, while Clark electrified fans in her own way Sunday. Even members of Brazil\u2019s team were spotted asking her for autographs after the game.
\nClark later told reporters, \u201cI haven\u2019t played in, like, 200 days, so I was a little nervous. But the competitive spirit in me \u2014 you just want to play really good for these fans.\u201d
\nOther Fever standouts included Kelsey Mitchell with 17 points, Aliyah Boston with 11, and Natasha Howard who added 10.
\nThe Fever wrap up preseason against the Atlanta Dream this Saturday before their regular season opener against Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky on May 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Caitlin Clark returned to the hardwood in iconic fashion Sunday, leading the Indiana Fever to a dominant 108-44 preseason win over Brazil\u2019s national team \u2014 and breaking a WNBA record in the process. The 23-year-old sensation played her first game in over 200 days and did it at Iowa\u2019s Carver Hawkeye Arena, drawing a sold-out …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":80638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80641,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80618\/revisions\/80641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}