Caitlin Clark came up short in the two biggest moments.
Chelsea Gray made her pay both times.
Clark had a chance to ice the game down the stretch of the Fever’s 86-84 overtime loss to the Aces Thursday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
She went to the foul line with seven seconds left and the Fever leading 75-72, needing to make just one free throw to make it a two-possession game.
But she missed both.
Gray subsequently drilled a buzzer-beater 3-pointer on the other end to send the game to overtime.
“Obviously just can’t happen,” Clark said. “And those are free throws I usually make, and [it’s] certainly frustrating. Obviously one of them gives us a two-possession lead. Kind of cost my team there for sure, so that’s on me.”
Clark had a chance to redeem herself in overtime, but instead delivered another moment to forget.
The Fever led 84-83, and Clark went one-on-one with Aces Superstar A’ja Wilson with about 15 seconds left.
Wilson deflected and stole Clark’s attempted pass to Makayla Timpson, then Gray hit another buzzer-beating 3-pointer on the other end — this time the game-winner.
Clark was knocked to the ground on the turnover and never got back, resulting in the Fever playing 4-on-5 on defense on the final possession.
“First of all, A’ja had a great stop defensively,” Gray said. “We always say it’s going to come down to our defense. And she had a great stop defensively, got it to me on the outlet. I knew [coach Becky Hammon] wasn’t going to call a timeout. So I hit it to Jackie [Young] and could go score the basketball. But she hunted me on the 3-point line, [I] looked up at the clock again, knocked it down.”
Clark finished with 20 points but on rough 7-for-20 shooting from the field along with eight turnovers.
Wilson paced the Aces with 26 points and 16 rebounds.
