Caitlin Clark scored 11 points in her WNBA postseason debut on Sunday, well below the Indiana Fever star’s season average of 19.2 points per game.

She made just 24% of her shots and 15% of her three-point shots, which is also well below her season averages of 42% and 34%.

At one point, Clark slammed her hand on the bench in frustration during the third quarter of her team’s 93-69 loss to the Connecticut Sun.

She probably could have done without the black eye she sustained in the first quarter.

Less than two minutes into the first playoff game, Clark was poked near her right eye by Connecticut’s DiJonai Carrington as the newly crowned WNBA Rookie of the Year made a pass to teammate Aliyah Boston. Clark lay curled up on the floor holding her eye, but no foul was called.

She ended up with a bruise in that area of ​​her face, but Clark didn’t use that as an excuse for her subpar play.

“Hit me pretty hard in the eye. Honestly, I don’t think it affected me,” Clark told reporters after the game. “I felt like I had good shots, they just didn’t go in. Obviously tough timing for that.”

She added: “Of course it didn’t feel so good when it happened, but it is what it is.”

The contact seemed to be accidental.

During a game between the two teams in June, Carrington appeared to mock Clark for overdoing a foul. That same week, the fourth-year player with the Suns appeared to criticize the league’s newcomer at X for “not thinking too much and spending time on” people using her name to advance agendas like racism and misogyny.

Clark is the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer and was the Fever’s first overall pick in this year’s WNBA draft. She and the team struggled early in the season before hitting their stride after the league’s Olympic break, finishing with a 9-5 record that put the Fever in the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

While she set a WNBA record with 337 assists this season, Clark also led the league with 5.6 turnovers per game. On Sunday, she had eight assists (about her season average of 8.4 per game) while causing just two turnovers.

“I felt like I fought and did my best and took better care of the ball than usual, which is positive,” Clark said.

Another loss this week will mean season-ending for Clark and the Fever. Game 2 is back in Uncasville, Connecticut, on Wednesday. If a decisive Game 3 is necessary, it will be Friday in Indianapolis.

“We can win,” Clark said. “It’s not about the building. It’s not about the gym. It’s not about the baskets. I have the most confidence in the world in this team, and everyone in the locker room does, too, and I know we’re going to be a lot better on Wednesday.”