Caitlin Clark’s WNBA debut got off to a bit of a rocky start before she seemed to find her rhythm, finishing her first regular-season professional basketball game with 20 points on 5 of 15 shooting in the Fever’s 92-71 loss to the Connecticut Sun.
The highly anticipated debut of Clark on Tuesday at Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut was a massive night for the WNBA, which is trying to leverage her stardom into a new batch of fans who followed the No. 1 overall pick during her four years in college at Iowa.
But the game didn’t start off as well as Clark would have liked, as she didn’t put up her first points until late in the first half.
She bounced back in the second half, scoring 13 more points as the 22-year-old appeared to get more comfortable.
Clark finished shooting 4 of 11 from 3-point range but turned over the ball 10 times in the loss.
Clark — who was covered extensively by Connecticut’s DiJonai Carrington and not given many chances at uncontested shots — only had three assists on Tuesday night.
She was visibly upset as she left the court at halftime, as ESPN cameras caught teammate Aliyah Boston talking with Clark as they walked toward the locker room.
But Clark then hit three of her four total 3s in the second half.
The Fever superstar missed her first four shots of the contest before she finally scored her first WNBA basket with 5:25 left in the second quarter when she drove to the hoop.
Clark, who looked a bit more like herself late in the second quarter, hit a signature 3-pointer with 29.9 seconds remaining on the clock that served as her first official WNBA trey to pull the Fever to within nine of the Sun.
Before the game, Clark said she was ready for the first pro game of her career.
“I think I’m ready for this moment no matter how it goes. Great, good, bad, whatever it is,” Clark, who was the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft, said.
“This is a first for me. It’s a great learning opportunity and you only get your first WNBA game one time, so you better make the most of it and soak in every second.”
Clark was given a loud ovation from the crowd when her name was called during Indiana’s player introduction and signs throughout the arena bore Clark’s name on them.
Tuesday night’s game was sold out and was the first time since the Sun’s inaugural season that they sold out their season opener.
