UNCASVILLE, Conn. — The championship version of Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever couldn’t be built in one season. No one from the general manager to the ultra-competitive Clark realized that.

“This is a small taste of what’s possible for this organization and this franchise,” Clark said after completing the final 40 minutes of her sensational rookie season. “And there’s a lot to be proud of.”

The Fever nearly forced a third game against a far more experienced Connecticut Sun team on Wednesday night at Mohegan Sun Arena, and the final minutes felt like a classic Clark fairytale ending that has captivated millions of viewers for nearly a year.

With five minutes left, she orchestrated a mini-run for the Fever with a fadeaway basket and a pass to Lexie Hull, who set up a three-pointer by Temi Fagbenle, and capped it off with a three-pointer that gave the Fever their first lead since 1:29 of the first quarter. The Fever took the lead again with a pass to Aliyah Boston.

But success doesn’t come that quickly. That wasn’t the case for Clark in Iowa either. The Fever’s offense faltered and the Sun ended Indiana’s best season since 2016 with an 87-81 win in the same place where the year began.

“This team won five games three years ago,” Clark said. “So we’re a young group, a pretty inexperienced group, but we’ve come together and had a lot of fun playing together. The worst part is sometimes you feel like you’re playing your best basketball and then you have to stop.”

Clark improved over the course of the season, from a franchise-record 10 turnovers in her debut to a 25-point, 9 assists, 6 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block and 3 turnovers performance in the finals. She played all 40 minutes alongside backcourt mate Kelsey Mitchell and got the game going with a first-time 3-pointer, an indication that it wasn’t going to be the poor shooting night fans saw in Game 1.

She finished fourth in MVP voting and is a contender for first-team All-WNBA honors. The Associated Press unanimously voted her Rookie of the Year. She is all but assured of the league’s ROY Award. Records, both rookie and overall, fell in droves.

And the Fever made the playoffs for the first time since 2016, a goal they made quite public after years of languishing in the bottom of the standings as the league’s flagship team. From 2017 to 2022, the Fever finished 45-147 (.234) and had just one season above .300. Lottery winnings weren’t useful; they were wasted.

In 2022, the Fever finished the season with a franchise-low 5-31 (.139) record and general manager Lin Dunn brought in Christie Sides as head coach. They got the No. 1 pick and drafted Boston, a national champion from South Carolina. The 6-foot-5 center led them to a 13-27 season — tying the franchise’s most wins since 2017 — and won the Royal League Championship Award.

“My rookie season was, I think, a rebuilding year,” Boston said. “And when you look at a rebuilding year, everybody wants to win a championship and take home a ring and everything. But I think when you look at basketball as a whole and you look at where you started and where you are now, it’s about stepping stones. I think in two seasons we’ve taken the right steps to move forward and I’m excited to see what the future holds.

“We are making progress. I think it’s important to keep the focus.”

The Las Vegas Aces drafted as number 1 for three consecutive seasons from 2017 to 2019, lost in the finals in 2020, and did not break through to the title with their core team until 2022. The same goes for the Seattle Storm every time they drafted as number 1 in a row.

Still, the Fever were expected to be good. Great, even. Expectations were sky high, despite battling through an opening round filled with the game’s best teams and veterans. After a 1-9 start, the outside noise grew louder. They rebounded, became one of the best teams after the All-Star/Olympic break, and secured a 6th-place finish with a 20-20 record.

“We played the hell out of the playoffs after starting 1-8, and that’s an incredible story to talk about,” Sides said.

This loss was not a sign of doom and gloom, nor was there a mood of immense discontent following the Game 1 loss. Sure, there was disappointment with how they played and how they deviated from the game plan. But this was a learning opportunity for the future.

Boston has a rookie contract through 2025 with an option for 2026. Clark’s contract runs through 2026 or 2027. Mitchell is an unrestricted free agent who the Fever will likely keep with goodwill. There are key free agents they will court and a big draft pick to fill the bench.

“We definitely have what it takes to have some great years ahead of us with our young talent,” Sides said.

Sides said she will take a few weeks to relax and “get a good night’s sleep and not wake up and talk about basketball all the time.” Boston, who worked in the gym for the women’s varsity basketball team last year, said now that she has a feel for the Fever’s faster pace, she can better gauge offseason training plans.

Clark is ready to take a breather.

“I feel like basketball has been my life for a year now,” Clark said.

The “Crossover at Kinnick” that began her final season at Iowa took place nearly a year ago on Oct. 15, 2023. She chased and broke Pete Maravich’s all-time NCAA record, a mark many thought unattainable. The record-holder led Iowa to the Final Four for the second consecutive year after the Hawkeyes had never made it before her. That same week, she appeared on “Saturday Night Live” and officially became the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft. Viewers met her in Indianapolis and didn’t leave all summer as the Fever broke attendance records.

She hasn’t had time to think about it, nor can she pick a favorite moment out of all of it. She’s more focused on the relationships she’s built and the people around her as she’s accomplished all of this.

Her assessment of her own rookie season is also difficult. She is a harsh judge and an intense competitor who always strives for more.

“I feel like I had a solid year,” Clark said. “But for me, the fun part is I feel like I’m just scratching the surface and I’m someone who nags about everything I do and I know I want to help this franchise get even better, like my teammates have done even better, be better for my teammates and I know we still have a lot of work to do to continue to improve. That’s what excites me the most. I feel like I can get a lot better and before we know it, I’m sure we’ll all be back here and ready for next year.”

The championship version of Fever and Clark is closer, but still loads.