Basketball

Clark ready to shake off disappointing debut defeat

May 15, 2024 3:55 pm

[ Source : Reuters ]

Caitlin Clark is ready to put her WNBA debut in the rear view mirror, after an uneasy start saw the Connecticut Sun wallop her Indiana Fever on the road 92-71 on Tuesday.

The six-foot sharpshooter said she expected a tough test when she was selected first in the draft last month and got just that at Mohegan Sun Arena as the Sun held her scoreless until midway through the second quarter.

“You gotta learn from it and move on and be ready to go,” said Clark, who had 20 points but 10 turnovers across the night. “As a team, collectively, we would have liked to play better and (have) shown a better product.”

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The road ahead will not get any easier for Clark, who has drawn enormous interest as she broke the all-time collegiate scoring record in her final season at Iowa and left television records shattered in her wake.

The Fever play last year’s finalists New York Liberty at home on Thursday and in Brooklyn on Saturday before again facing the Sun in Indiana on Monday, an unenviable stretch for the Fever, who have not had a winning season since 2015.

Fever coach Christie Sides said there is little time for the team to fix what they need to.

“There’s just so much that we need to work on,” Sides told reporters. “This league, it’s not very kind of us right now with our schedule and what we have coming up next.”