On Sunday afternoon, Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever defeated the Seattle Storm by the score of 92-75. Despite the victory, Clark picked up her 5th technical foul of the season in the third quarter of the contest.
After missing a three-pointer, Clark slapped the padding underneath the backboard in frustration. Clark was confused by the call of a technical foul but used it as motivation to finish the game strong.
When speaking to the media post-game she said. “ I got a technical for basically being mad at myself because I missed a three and then I went and hit the backboard and he [the ref] told me it was disrespectful to the game of basketball…it’s a personal frustration, had nothing to do with my team, it had nothing to do with the reffing, had nothing to do with the other team. It was just because I’m a competitor and I felt like I should have been making more shots. But I think he fired me up to continue to play a lot harder, I thought we got a lot better after he did that so I want to thank him for that.”
Although Clark has been staying positive off the court, if she continues to get heated during the games it could lead to her being suspended. The league has a rule in place where after seven technical fouls in one season a player will be suspended one game. The player will then pile up suspensions for every other technical after that, the 9th,11th,13th,15th, and so on.
With 12 games left in the regular season, Clark must be careful not to pick up any more unnecessary technicals. Losing Clark would be detrimental to the surging Fever team trying to make a final push for the playoffs. Indiana’s next game will take place this Saturday night as the Fever travel to Minnesota to take on the Lynx.