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Caitlin Clark breaks WNBA rookie assists record as Fever beat Storm 92-75

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 Kelsey Mitchell scored 27 points, Caitlin Clark added 23 points and nine assists, and Lexie Hull scored 12 of her career-high 22 points in the fourth quarter Sunday to help the Indiana Fever beat the Seattle Storm 92-75.

With 232 assists so far this season, Clark broke the previous WNBA rookie record of 224 by Ticha Penicheiro in 1998. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 draft has scored at least 20 points in five of her last six games. She is averaging 23.7 points on 47% shooting from the field, and 11.7 assists over that span.

Mitchell hit 10 of 19 from the field and 5 of 8 from 3-point range, while Hull was 8-of-10 shooting and hit a career-best six 3s on seven attempts. Aliyah Boston grabbed 15 rebounds to go with nine points and a career-high eight assists for Indiana.

Jewell Loyd hit a jumper that cut the Storm’s deficit to 61-60 with 9 minutes to play. Indiana’s Damiris Dantas made a free throw about a minute later, Hull hit a pair of 3-pointers 35 seconds apart, and Mitchell added another from behind the arc before Boston hit a short jumper to cap a 14-5 spurt that made it 75-65 with 5:51 to go.

Skylar Diggins-Smith answered with consecutive buckets in the lane to make it a six-point game just 28 seconds later but Hull again hit back-to-back 3s — this time in 31 seconds — to spark a 15-2 run. Clark followed with another 3-pointer and then assisted on 3s by Mitchell and Dantas, the latter of which gave the Fever a 90-71 lead with 2:24 remaining.

Loyd led Seattle (17-10) with 26 points, Diggins-Smith scored 15 and Nneka Ogwumike added 14 points, nine rebounds, and four steals. The trio combined to make just 20 of 54 from the field as the Storm shot just 38.9% (28 of 72) overall.

Indiana (13-15), which has matched its win total from the 2023 campaign with 12 games remaining in the regular season, has won back-to-back games coming out of the monthlong break for the Paris Olympics. The Fever have won four of five overall and 10-5 after winning just three of 11 games to open the season.

On Sunday, the Indiana Fever secured their second victory since the Olympic break, overcoming the Seattle Storm 92-75. The win was particularly significant as it allowed the Fever to avoid a season sweep by clinching the final game of their four-match series against the Storm.

A notable moment from the game was Caitlin Clark's historic achievement. Clark set a new WNBA rookie record for assists, surpassing the previous benchmark set by Sacramento Monarchs legend Ticha Penicheiro. However, her record-breaking night wasn't without controversy.

Midway through the third quarter, with 7:14 remaining, Clark was hit with a technical foul under contentious circumstances. After missing a shot, she struck the padding of the basketball hoop in frustration, which led the referee to issue the technical. The call sparked debate, as many considered the action to be a display of personal frustration rather than unsportsmanlike conduct.

Speaking after the game, Clark addressed the incident, revealing that the referee interpreted her action as disrespectful to the game. "The ref told me it was disrespectful to the game of basketball," Clark explained. She compared the situation to a technical foul she received during her college career for uttering a mild expletive out of frustration. Despite the penalty, Clark noted that it motivated her to play with even greater intensity. "I think he fired me up to continue to play a lot harder. I thought we got a lot better after he did that, so I want to thank him for that," she added.

Clark is approaching suspension for her high number of technical fouls

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Caitlin Clark steals the show with sass

Clark's technical foul on Sunday marked her fifth of the season, placing her just two away from a one-game suspension under WNBA rules. According to league regulations, a player is suspended for one game after accumulating seven technical fouls. Each additional technical foul beyond the seventh (9th, 11th, 13th, etc.) results in further suspensions. In addition to the risk of suspension, Clark has also incurred fines totaling $1,400 this season due to her technical fouls.

Currently, Clark trails only Diana Taurasi and Natasha Cloud of the Phoenix Mercury, who each have six technical fouls, as the league leaders in this category. Both Taurasi and Cloud picked up their sixth technical foul in their match against the Fever on Friday.

As the season progresses, Clark will need to carefully manage her on-court emotions to avoid further disciplinary actions that could impact her availability for crucial games. Despite the controversy, her record-breaking performance continues to solidify her status as one of the most promising rookies in the WNBA.

Caitlin Clark continues to assert herself as one of the best passers in WNBA history.

Already the record-holder for assists in a single game (19, which she set in the final game before the All-Star break), Clark is now in the record books once more. With her third assist Sunday against the Seattle Storm, Clark set a new single-season mark for total helpers by a rookie.

Clark passed Ticha Penicheiro, who had 225 for the Sacramento Monarchs in 1998.

The WNBA season was shorter during Penicheiro’s rookie year, but it took the Portuguese guard 30 games to reach 225. Clark exceeded that mark in Indiana’s 28th game of the season, with 12 more contests left to put that total out of reach for future first-years.

After a relatively slow start to the season — at least by the prolific standard she set at Iowa — Clark has been on a tear of late. In the last 16 games entering Sunday (after that brutal opening stretch of 11 contests in 20 days), Clark is averaging a near double-double with 18.9 points and 9.6 assists per game.

She kicked off the second half of the season with 29 points and 10 assists in a win over the Phoenix Mercury and their three Olympians. Clark followed that with 23 points, nine assists, and five rebounds on 9-of-19 shooting in the Indiana Fever’s 92-75 win over the Storm.

Clark is the WNBA leader in assists per game (8.3) and could break the single-season total assist record held by Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas if she averages 7.1 assists the rest of the way. New York Liberty guard Courtney Vandersloot’s all-time mark of 10 assists per game (set during the 22-game bubble season in 2020) still looms, but it would be foolish to bet against Clark chasing that at some point in her nascent career.

The Fever sit at 13-15, in seventh place in the WNBA standings with the top eight making the playoffs. They have already tied their win total from a year ago, and have beaten the two teams directly in front of them in the standings to start the second half of the season. Indiana has the second-easiest schedule remaining over its final 12 games.


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