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 71-70 to secure their first home win of the season.

Indiana’s Clark finished with 11 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists, while Chicago’s Reese put up 8 points with 12 rebounds. Reese was relentless on the offensive glass with 8 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 familiar foe for Clark as she faced Kamilla Cardoso, a member of the Gamecocks championship team and now a Sky rookie. Cardoso, who missed the start of the season with a shoulder injury, made her WNBA debut and put up 11 points with 6 rebounds off the bench.

Cardoso also faced her former college teammate, Aliyah Boston. With 1:19 remaining in the game, Boston made a huge and-1 layup over Cardoso, giving the Fever a 70-67 lead.

 

The play of the game 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.

Clark finished 4-of-11 shooting and went 2 of 9 from 3-point range. She attempted only one free throw, two days after she and her coach expressed frustration over officiating.

But once again, an opponent was physical with Clark — this time, it was Chicago’s Chennedy Carter.

Late in the third quarter, after making a basket, Carter knocked down Clark as the Fever rookie awaited an inbounds pass. Carter appeared to say something before slamming her shoulder into Clark, causing her to fall to the ground. Carter was whistled for an away-from-the-play foul, giving Clark her lone free throw attempt of the game, but officials did not upgrade it to a flagrant.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” Clark said. “But it’s just like, ‘Respond, calm down and let your play do the talking.’ It is what it is … Go make the free throw and then execute on offense.”

Carter, who led Chicago with 19 points off the bench, declined to comment about the altercation.

“I ain’t answering no Caitlin Clark questions,” Carter said.