WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Caitlin Clark was alone with the ball, right in the front of the logo with the game on the line.<\/p>\n
As frustrating as this season has been at times for her and the Indiana Fever, this was Clark\u2019s comfort zone \u2014 and the shot hit nothing but net.<\/p>\n
Clark\u2019s 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds remaining gave Indiana a 78-76 victory over the Washington Mystics on Monday night \u2014 and gave the 24-year-old star a signature moment following a rocky stretch at the start of her third season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think sometimes we take great players, and certainly generational talent, for granted,\u201d Indiana coach Stephanie White said. \u201cWhat she did was incredible for us. She\u2019s going to have many more moments like that. I know she is. And we needed this one tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indiana was just 5-5 entering the game. Clark was filling up the stat sheet but had not been shooting the ball well. As always, she\u2019s been under a microscope, having to answer for a feisty sideline exchange with White and receiving criticism by national columnists for her occasional histrionics on the court.<\/p>\n
The online conversation around her feels almost tribal at times, but in front of a packed crowd at Washington\u2019s CareFirst Arena, she contributed to another electric atmosphere. White was asked if this game-winning 3 might quiet the \u201cnoise\u201d around Clark, but that may be impossible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know that the noise is ever going to be quiet,\u201d White said. \u201cThis is what Caitlin does. She makes big shots, and she has big moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
After scoring 10 points in the first quarter, Clark was derailed for a bit because of foul trouble. Her four-point play in the third pushed Indiana\u2019s lead to 17, but the Mystics rallied.<\/p>\n
Down by one with 36 seconds left, Clark missed two straight free throws, but before another round of discourse could even get started, Washington turned the ball over and Clark patiently found Kelsey Mitchell in transition for a layup to give the Fever the lead.<\/p>\n
Then Sonia Citron made two free throws with 4.3 seconds to play, putting the Mystics up 76-75. Indiana called timeout, and Sophie Cunningham\u2019s inbound pass sailed across the court toward Clark, who was all alone after Washington\u2019s Cotie McMahon tried for the steal and missed. It was perhaps the biggest shot of her WNBA career.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou better make this,\u201d Clark said she was thinking at the time. \u201cBecause I missed my free throws. All those plays are plays we work on after practice, so everybody knows their role, everybody knows what they\u2019re going to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cCotie almost got a fingertip on it,\u201d Clark added. \u201cIt kind of worked out perfectly that she went for the steal. Honestly probably the most wide-open shot I had all night. My hands got a little clammy, but still went in, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teammate Lexie Hull was in the opposite corner, pretty open in her own right, but it was no surprise the ball went to Clark.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom my view, I thought Cotie was going to get it,\u201d Hull said. \u201cThen it slipped through, and still holding my breath. I have complete confidence that it\u2019s going to go in, but to see it go in and put us in the lead, that was one of the biggest moments we\u2019ve had this season, so very excited.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd just for Caitlin, very happy to see it go through for her.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Caitlin Clark was alone with the ball, right in the front of the logo with the game on the line. As frustrating as this season has been at times for her and the Indiana Fever, this was Clark\u2019s comfort zone \u2014 and the shot hit nothing but net. Clark\u2019s 3-pointer with 1.2 … Continue reading Caitlin Clark answers critics with some \u2018noise\u2019 of her own: a last-second 3-pointer for the win<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1452],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1514175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-06-11 11:14:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1514175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1514176,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514175\/revisions\/1514176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1514175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1514175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1514175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}