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Caitlin Clark threw up her arms, yelled at WNBA referees and punched the air in frustration after a controversial no-call cost her team a chance to knock off the defending champions Saturday.
In the final seconds of the Indiana Fever’s 90-88 loss to the reigning champion New York Liberty, Clark took the ball with a chance to tie or win the game.
New York’s Natasha Cloud was defending Clark and leaned into the superstar enough to knock the ball out of Clark’s hands and knock Clark back slightly.
A replay showed Cloud pushing her shoulder into Clark’s the moment the ball came loose.
But the referees did not blow the whistle, and the game ended there.
Clark immediately looked to the officials for a foul and quickly began to shout at them when she realized no foul call was forthcoming. Her teammate, Sophie Cunningham, also approached the refs to protest the lack of a whistle.
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The no-call may have prevented Clark from winning the game at the free-throw line because the contact occurred on a shot beyond the 3-point arc. But it also cost Clark a chance at a major WNBA milestone.
Clark, finishing with 18 points, fell just two points shy of a 20-point, 10-rebound game. It would have been the 11th of her career and the most by any player in league history. Clark is tied with Courtney Vandersloot with 10.
Cloud and the Liberty walked away with the team’s first-ever 3-0 start to a season in defense of their title.
Cloud has been outspoken about backlash to physical plays against Clark.
During an interview on the “Pivot Podcast” with Ryan Clark in March, Cloud insisted outrage in response to hits on Clark was rooted in “racism.”
“It’s just a part of the game. There was no targeting, there was no nothing. That narrative that got spun into, ‘Oh, the vets hate the rookies. The rookies hate the vets. The vets are going after certain players.’ It’s all bulls—. If I’m just going to be frank, it’s all bulls—. What it is is racism,” Cloud said.
“It gets blown up into, ‘Oh, they’re going after Caitlin Clark.’ But, no, we’re just playing one of the best players that’s in this league the way that any other best player or franchise player has been played.”
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