Clark overcomes injury, but Fever fall to Sun in close game before another sellout home crowd

Tyasha Harris scored 13 of Connecticut’s final 18 points Monday night, including two free throws with 10.9 seconds left, and the Sun kept the Indiana Fever and rookie Caitlin Clark winless through four games with an 88-84 victory Monday night.

The Fever played before their second straight sellout crowd at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in downtown Indianapolis, drawing 17,274. The Fever showed improvement, playing a tight contest against a team that blew them out by 21 points just six days ago.

“I think you could see the progress we’re making and that’s why this one hurts a lot. We were right there and we had plenty of opportunities to go win the game and you don’t,” Clark said. “We’ve played the top teams in the league and we were right there with the Sun today.”

Indiana’s brutal schedule already has included two games against last season’s WNBA runner-up, the New York Liberty, and two more against the Sun, who had the league’s third-best record last season.

The result has been a predictably difficult learning curve—four straight losses, the first three by double digits—for a young team led by the league’s newest star. And when Clark crumpled to the floor with 5:37 left in the first half, grabbing at her lower left leg and grimacing in pain until the game was stopped a few moments later, the Fever’s chances looked lost yet again.

But after limping directly into the tunnel near the team bench, retaping her ankle and going through halftime warmups with her teammates, Clark was back—and looked more like the two-time national college player of the year during the final quarter than she had during the first 15 quarters of her pro career.

Clark finished with 17 points and five assists, all in the final 10 minutes, while making 5-of-11 shots and three 3-pointers, including a go-ahead 3 from the Gainbridge Fieldhouse logo that gave Indiana a 70-68 with 7:15 to go and brought the crowd to its feet.

“That was a big shot,” she said. “We got the crowd going. I mean, that crowd was incredible.”

Harris finished with 16 points and three 3-pointers for the Sun’s second win in a week over the Fever and Clark, who returned in the second half after missing the final 5-1/2 minutes of the first half with an apparent left ankle injury.

Alyssa Thomas had 24 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists—barely missing her second triple-double against Indiana this season. DeWanna Bonner added 22 points and DiJonai Carrington had 13.

Clark opened the fourth quarter with three straight assists and a 3-pointer from the Gainbridge Fieldhouse logo to give Indiana a 70-68 lead.

Kelsey Mitchell also had 17 points and five assists, while Nalyssa Smith scored 13 points and Temi Fagbenle added 11 points and 10 rebounds. Aliyah Boston scored 10 points but missed a layup that would have tied the game with 7.4 seconds remaining.

Still, it was progress for Indiana.

On Monday they stayed close, tying the score at 26 after one, taking their first halftime lead of the season at 44-41 and rallying from a 60-51 third-quarter deficit to close within 64-61 after three. They fought hard in a back-and-forth final 7:15 after Clark’s big 3.

But Harris’ late scoring spree gave Connecticut an 82-78 lead with 2:04 to go.

Layups from Mitchell and Clark tied the score with 1:04 to go, but Bonner broke free for a layup with 41 seconds remaining. After Clark found an open Boston for a tying mid-range jumper 12 seconds later, the Sun made four straight free throws to close it out.

The Fever begin a three-game West Coast swing Wednesday at Seattle.