$6.4k tickets as US hoops’ new sensation Caitlin Clark battles in WNBA debut
Women’s basketball sensation Caitlin Clark scored 20 factors however gave up 10 turnovers on a troublesome WNBA debut as her Indiana Fever staff fell to a 92-71 loss to the Connecticut Sun on Tuesday (all occasions US).
Clark, NCAA Division I basketball’s all-time main scorer, has introduced unprecedented consideration to ladies’s basketball together with her faculty profession which rewrote the document books and shattered attendance and tv viewing data.
Indiana took her because the primary draft choose, sustaining the excitement round Clark which had peaked together with her run to the nationwide championship sport with Iowa.
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The hype within the build-up was all the time going to be exhausting to dwell as much as, however Clark and her staff endured a troublesome evening in opposition to a powerful Suns defence.
“There’s a lot to learn from, it’s the first one,” Clark advised a post-game press convention.
“There’s going to be good ones, there’s going to be bad ones.”
The sport on the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, was bought out, with courtside seats being supplied for as a lot as $4,262 ($AU6,416) on secondary markets.
While she was making her debut on the highway, it was evident from the group reactions that many had come simply to see the star of final month’s NCAA event.
Clark’s 20 factors made her the Fever’s prime scorer and got here on 5-of-15 capturing, 4-of-11 on three-pointers and 6-of-6 on free throws. She additionally had three assists, two steals and 10 turnovers.
Clark struggled early within the sport, selecting up two contact fouls which noticed her head to the bench prematurely.
Her first factors didn’t come till there was 5:24 remaining within the second quarter, though she discovered her movement later with 13 second-half factors.
“I would have liked to have played a little better tonight. Obviously getting into foul trouble and then you are going to sit on the bench and try to come back and get a little bit of a flow,” she mentioned.
“Obviously too many turnovers – that’s not going to get the job done. There’s a lot of things to learn from.
“I thought it took me a little while to settle into the game. I thought the second half was a lot better minus some of the turnovers,” she mentioned.
The Sun’s star ahead Alyssa Thomas recorded a triple-double with 13 factors, 10 rebounds and 13 assists.
Clark will make her dwelling debut in Indianapolis on Thursday in opposition to final 12 months’s WNBA runner-up New York Liberty.
