Saturday’s highly anticipated reunion between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese — this time on the WNBA stage — delivered as the Indiana Fever beat the Chicago Sky 70-71.
Indiana’s Clark finished with 11 points and eight rebounds, while Chicago’s Reese put up eight points with 12 rebounds. Reese was relentless on the offensive glass with eight offensive rebounds, the most by a rookie in franchise history.
Clark and Reese last met in the Elite Eight in April, with Clark and Iowa beating Reese and LSU 94-87 to advance in the NCAA Tournament. Iowa went on to reach the national championship, where it lost to South Carolina.
Saturday’s game provided another reunion for Clark as she faced Kamilla Cardoso, a member of the Gamecocks championship team and now a Sky rookie. Cardoso made her WNBA debut Saturday after missing the start of the season with a shoulder injury and put up 11 points with six rebounds off the bench.
Cardoso also faced her former college teammate, Aliyah Boston. With 1:19 remaining in the game, Indiana’s Boston made a huge and-1 layup over Cardoso, giving the Fever a 70-67 lead.
GAMECOCK ON GAMECOCK 👀
Aliyah Boston with the huge bucket for the Fever on ESPN
WNBA Commissioner’s Cup presented by @coinbase pic.twitter.com/j6uSNpwIOy
— WNBA (@WNBA) June 1, 2024
The game’s most exciting moment came earlier in the fourth quarter when Chicago’s Elizabeth Williams missed a short jumper. Clark got the rebound and threw it ahead to Erica Wheeler, who threw a lob to Kelsey Mitchell. Mitchell finished the fast break with an alley-oop and-1 layup that put Indiana up 63-57.
For more on the Sky-Fever game, follow The Athletic’s live blog.
Required reading
(Photo: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)
