Caitlin Clark had a rough playoff debut, sporting a black eye after accidently getting poked in it early on.
The Indiana Fever's star rookie missed 10 of her first 11 shots before finishing with 11 points and eight assists in the team's 93-69 loss to the Connecticut Sun on Sunday in Game 1 of the best-of-three series.
The AP's Rookie of the Year refused to use the early first quarter eye-poke as an excuse for her off-night.
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“Got me pretty good in the eye; I don’t think it affected me,” she said. “I felt like I got good shots, they just didn’t go down. Tough time for that to happen. I thought I got some really good looks. Three pretty wide open 3s in the first half, you usually make.”
Clark's shooting struggles continued early into the third quarter before the Fever called a timeout. The young star smacked a chair on the bench in frustration. That seemed to get her going a little bit as she came out and hit her next three shots, Unfortunately for Indiana, Connecticut guard Marina Mabrey got hot, scoring 11 of her 27 points in the third quarter and the Fever could never recover.
“My shot felt like it was right there," said Clark, who finished the game 4 for 17 from the field, including missing 11 of her 13 3-point attempts. “It’s so frustrating as a shooter when it won't go down for you. That’s what (stinks) about it. ... We were right there, I think we cut it to eight but then they came back down and hit a 3 on us.”
The Sun switched up their defense as far as who was guarding Clark. DeWanna Bonner, who is 6-foot-4, drew the assignment a lot.
“I took on the challenge, next game she’ll come out firing,” Bonner said.
Clark will get another chance Wednesday in Game 2, hoping to send the series back to Indiana for a decisive third game Friday.
The WNBA's single-season assist leader made her regular season debut in Connecticut also back in May. She struggled in that game as well, missing 10 of her 15 shots.
Even though this was a road game, like they have most of the season, the Fever had a strong following in Connecticut. It felt like nearly an even split of the sellout crowd who were cheering on almost everything positive that Clark and Indiana were doing.
“Caitlin draws a lot of fans. She’s amazing,” Mabrey said. “They can come see whoever they want to come see, but at the end of day we’re here to win a championship.”