The years-long rivalry between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese added another moment Saturday.
Clark knocked Reese to the floor midway through the third quarter of the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky’s season opener, a play that led to Clark’s first career flagrant foul.
The foul occurred as Reese went for a layup and Clark appeared to wrap her up to prevent the shot. Reese went sprawling to the floor, and replays showed Clark extended her arms upon making contact. Reese jumped to her feet and began yelling toward Clark as the Fever guard walked in the opposite direction. Reese and Fever forward Aliyah Boston, who bumped into Reese while intervening on Clark’s behalf, received technical fouls after the review.
“Basketball play. Refs got it right. Move on,” Reese said after the game.
Roy Gulbeyan, the crew chief, said the foul on Clark met the criteria for a flagrant “for wind up, impact and follow-through for the extension of the left hand to Reese’s back, which is deemed not a legitimate basketball play and therefore deemed unnecessary contact,” according to the pool report.
Clark said she fouled Reese to prevent an open layup and send her to the free-throw line, saying, “I went for the ball, and that’s clear as day in the replay.”
“Let’s not make it anything that it’s not. It was just a good play on the basketball. I’m not sure what the refs saw to upgrade it. That’s up to their discretion,” Clark said. “We watch a lot of basketball; it’s a take foul to put them at the free throw or rather give up 2 points. I’ve watched a lot of basketball in my life. That’s exactly what it was. I wasn’t trying to do anything malicious. That’s not the type of player I am.”
“I thought it was a clear play on the ball as well,” Fever coach Stephanie White said. “One of the points of emphasis for us is we can’t give up and-1s. You’re gonna feel us, but I thought it was a good play on the ball.”
First-year Sky coach Tyler Marsh called the flagrant foul “a basketball play,” but he was careful to defend Reese’s reaction to it. After a heated Reese was guided to the bench by the Sky staff, she briefly left that area and attempted to walk down the sideline as she wagged her finger in the Clark’s direction. A couple members of the Sky staff got in Reese’s way and prevented her from going any farther.
“I think it’s a little misrepresentation to (say we needed to), ‘Calm her down,’” Marsh said postgame, pushing back on a question about the incident. “I think emotions were high on both sides, and so I think Angel reacted in a way that any of us would react in a moment like that. For her and for us, it’s the understanding that we’re all in this together. We got her back in that locker room and on this coaching staff, and it’ll continue to be that way throughout the season.”
Caitlin Clark received a flagrant foul on this play.
Aliyah Boston and Angel Reese received offsetting technical fouls. pic.twitter.com/jzQYEW92TW
— ESPN (@espn) May 17, 2025
The foul occurred with Indiana leading 56-42. After Reese made one of her free throws and Chicago guard Courtney Vandersloot made a layup, the Fever finished the quarter on a 9-0 run to take a 20-point lead into the fourth.
The Fever grew that to a 93-58 final score, and Clark finished with a 20-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist triple-double. Reese tallied 12 points and a game-high 17 rebounds.
Clark’s and Reese’s careers have been intertwined since 2023, when Reese’s LSU defeated Clark’s Iowa in the NCAA national championship game.
As rookies last season, Reese committed a flagrant foul on Clark in their teams’ second matchup, which wound up being a 91-83 Fever victory. As Clark drove to the basket in the third quarter, Reese tried to block Clark’s shot but hit her in the head. Unlike this year, when both players had to be separated, last season’s hard foul didn’t come with any extracurriculars. Clark went to the bench as referees reviewed the play, and Reese huddled with her teammates. Clark later said the hard foul was “just a part of basketball.”
