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    • Caitlin Clark’s rookie WNBA season ends with playoff loss to Sun
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    Caitlin Clark’s rookie WNBA season ends with playoff loss to Sun

    Madoc Meredith Posted on

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    UNCASVILLE, Conn. — With four minutes left in the final game of one of the most remarkable 11 1/2 months an athlete has ever experienced, Caitlin Clark sank one final exquisite three-pointer. The furious comeback she had orchestrated came from a most unexpected place: Her Indiana Fever took a 71-70 lead over the Connecticut Sun in the second game of their WNBA playoff series.

    What exactly were we watching here? Would Clark do what so many of us saw at her college in Iowa, when she reached two consecutive NCAA finals while becoming the leading scorer in Division I history on both the women’s and men’s side? And again over the last four and a half months as a rookie pro at Indiana, when she overcame a brutal early schedule and a terrible start to lead the Fever to a surprise playoff berth?

    Was Clark about to help another team to an improbable victory and send this series into a decisive third game?

    The answer this time was: No, not quite. Not this time. In the end, the Sun were just too good, just too experienced and just too relentless and defeated the Fever 87-81.

    But when Clark scored the three-pointer and again almost a minute and a half later when she found Aliyah Boston, who put the Fever two points ahead (75-73) with 2:41 minutes left in the game, anything seemed possible for the 22-year-old, who has captivated the nation with her high-wire act on the basketball court.

    Instead, the most unexpected and spectacular run in the history of women’s sports, which lasted nearly a year, is over. From Iowa’s outdoor preseason game at Kinnick Stadium on Oct. 15, 2023, to Wednesday night: All the records, all the historic TV ratings, all the unprecedented sellouts: It’s over. Clark is now done playing basketball in public. She’ll most likely be gone until next May. That’s a really strange thought, isn’t it?

    If many of us think it will take a while to get used to, you can imagine how Clark feels.

    “It’s definitely different for me,” she said after the game. “Basketball really dominated my life for a year, so I think it’s going to be good for me to look back on everything that happened. I feel like I didn’t even have time to really reflect on my college career because it ended so quickly. And then coming here and trying to give this team everything I could and kind of move on and put all that behind me and help this team get back to the playoffs.

    “So I want to take some time for myself and really enjoy this and look back. And you know, it was special. This group accomplished a lot of things that a lot of people probably didn’t think were possible after the season started. So it’s definitely going to be a little weird for me the first couple of weeks. And then I’m sure I’ll get bored and go back to basketball.”

    Clark was the best scorer with 25 points, nine assists and six rebounds. For her, it was an evening of highs and a sad low point at the end.

    “It’s obviously a tough game, especially because we fought our way back to the front and definitely had our chances at the end. Then we made a few mistakes and it’s a two-possession game again,” she said. “We couldn’t quite get over the hump. … This is a little taste of what’s possible for this organization and this franchise. And there’s a lot to be proud of. We’re a young group, a pretty inexperienced group, but we came together and had a lot of fun playing together.”

    Then she became a little wistful. “That’s sometimes the worst part. You feel like you’re playing your best basketball. Then it has to end, but like I said, I’m proud of this group. We stayed strong all year and had a lot of fun together.”

    It was a natural question to ask Clark what was next. It’s the first time in a long time that we don’t know the answer to that question. We knew exactly what was next back in April, after she led Iowa to the NCAA finals, losing to South Carolina. Eight days later, she was selected No. 1 in the WNBA Draft.

    And now?

    “I’ve been focused on beating the Connecticut Sun,” she said. “I haven’t thought too far ahead. I don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow, I don’t know what I’m going to do the next day. Maybe play a little golf. That’s what I’m going to do until it gets too cold in Indiana. I’m going to be a professional golfer.”

    Boston, which stood in for Clark’s millions of fans, had the final say on the idea.

    “Not too much,” she said. “Stick to basketball.”

    Editor’s note: Christine Brennan is writing a book about Caitlin Clark and the revolution in women’s sports, to be published by Scribner in spring/summer 2025.

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    Madoc Meredith
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