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‘Is what it is’: Bitter basketball rivalry takes fresh twist as prodigy whacked in the head by nemesis

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6 months ago

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‘Is what it is’: Bitter basketball rivalry takes fresh twist as prodigy whacked in the head by nemesis

One of the most tense rivalries in sports has another chapter.

With shortly under three minutes remaining in the third quarter of Sunday’s Fever-Sky game, Caitlin Clark drove to the basket and got whacked in the head by Angel Reese.

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Officials reviewed the play and assessed Reese with a Flagrant One.

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,” Reese said.

“I’m always going for the ball. Y’all are going to play that clip, what, 20 times before Monday?”

Carter cheap shot DROPS Caitlin Clark | 00:56

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Reese and Clark have been intertwined since last year’s women’s college basketball season, when Reese taunted Clark at the end of the national championship game when LSU beat Iowa.

Clark and Iowa got their revenge this past April, knocking LSU out of March Madness in Albany to reach the Final Four.

Earlier this month, Reese notably leapt up and cheered when her Sky teammate Chennedy Carter hip-checked Clark in a blatant non-basketball play that was eventually upgraded to a flagrant foul by the WNBA league office.

In part due to the rivalry between Clark and Reese, Sunday’s game at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse has had the energy of a playoff game despite the Sky entering the game with a 4-8 record while the Fever were 4-10.

This story originally appeared on the New York Post and has been reposted with permission

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