– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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UNCASVILLE, CONNECTICUT — As the Indiana Fever saw their lead shrink during the game’s most crucial stretch on Saturday, tensions rose to the point that their star, Caitlin Clark, received a technical foul and, given her subsequent reactions with the referees, came within a whisker of receiving a second technical foul and her first career ejection.
From that spot of bother, the Fever then turned to the one person who always provides composure and calm to any court she steps on.
Sophie Cunningham, professional agent of chaos.
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Really?
Strange yet true, Cunningham delivered for the Fever down the stretch, scoring all 11 of her points in the game’s final 2:06, lifting Indiana to an 85-75 victory over the Connecticut Sun inside Mohegan Sun Arena on Saturday evening. Clark led the Fever with 25 points while making five threes, and Aliyah Boston chipped in with 13 points, 11 rebounds and five assists.
The victory improved the Fever’s record in Commissioner’s Cup play to 4-1, a half-game behind the New York Liberty in the Eastern Conference standings of the competition. The top teams in each conference will play for the title on June 30.
Indiana held onto a 72-65 lead halfway through the fourth quarter before a 7-2 spurt from the Sun, spurred on by consecutive baskets from Saniya Rivers and Brittney Griner, cut the lead to two. The final point of the run was a Kennedy Burke free throw, a result of a technical foul called on Clark.
The Sun missed a chance to tie the game on the ensuing possession, then Cunningham followed up on the other end with back-to-back three-pointers — her first points of the game — that extended Indiana’s lead to 80-72 with 94 seconds remaining. She also scored baskets on consecutive possessions with less than a minute remaining — a layup followed by her third three-pointer of the quarter with 23 seconds left.
Four Sun players scored in double figures, led by 12 points off the bench from Olivia Nelson-Ododa.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Sunday afternoon’s game, with photos taken by New England-based photographer Amy Abramson-Denhoff. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 22 pictures in total.
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