Caitlin Clark reacts to Angel Reeses flagrant foul as Sky rookie calls out refs

INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark got clobbered in the head on a flagrant foul by Angel Reese, and she wasn’t going to give her archrival the satisfaction of letting anyone know if she might have been bothered by it.Late in the third quarter of Sunday’s Fever-Sky matinee, Clark was driving to the basket and found herself the recipient of a forearm to the side of the head.After the Fever closed out a 91-83 victory, in which Clark scored 23 points on 7-for-11 shooting along with eight rebounds and nine assists, she was asked what was going through her mind when Reese was called for a flagrant foul.“What’s going through my mind? I need to make these two free throws.That’s all I’m thinking about.

It’s just part of basketball.It is what it is,” Clark said.“She’s trying to make a play on the ball, and get the block.

It happens.” Reese — who recorded her sixth straight double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds while adding five assists — did not think she did anything wrong.“It’s a basketball play.I can’t control the refs.

They affected the game obviously a lot tonight,” she said.“I’m always going for the ball.Y’all are going to play that clip, what, 20 times before Monday?”It was the second straight game against the Sky during which Clark had been flagrant fouled, after the infamous play where Sky guard Chennedy Carter hip-checked her in a non-basketball play earlier this month.Carter’s hip-check was called a common foul at the time and later upgraded to a flagrant 1 by the WNBA league office.Fever coach Christie Sides was relieved that Reese’s forearm was called a flagrant in real time.“I was really proud of how the team all kept their composure,” Sides said.“The right call was made in that moment.

Flagrant 1.Two free throws and the ball.

Just make the right call in those moments and we can move forward.”Clark and Reese have a rivalry that dates back to their time in college at Iowa and LSU, respectively.During t...