Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White reached a boiling point with officiating following her team’s 90-88 loss to the defending champion New York Liberty at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The Fever had an opportunity to tie or win the contest in the closing seconds. Indiana had the ball with 2.2 seconds remaining in the game. Sophie Cunningham inbounded the ball to Caitlin Clark at half court, but Clark wasn’t able to get a shot off after the Liberty’s Natasha Cloud stripped the ball. Clark flailed her arms after the apparent contact and instantly turned to the referees in bewilderment as Breanna Stewart grabbed the ball as time expired. No foul was called on Cloud on the play, much to the Fever’s dismay.
“I thought she got fouled,” White said. “I think it’s pretty egregious what’s been happening to us these last few games. A minus-31 free throw discrepancy — I might be able to understand that if we’re chucking 3s, but we’re not. We’re attacking the rim. The disrespect right now for our team has been pretty unbelievable. It’s disappointing that it doesn’t go both ways, but we can’t allow that to consume us.”
LIBERTY DOWNS FEVER: Score as Caitlin Clark, Indiana lose close game to NY
The Fever had a 12-point lead over the Liberty in the fourth quarter, but New York wen ton a 16-2 run over the course of four minutes to take the lead and eventually win. The Fever dropped to 2-2 on the season after the loss, while the Liberty remain undefeated and move to 3-0.
White called out the free throw disparity in the game, noting that the Fever only had 15 free throw attempts, compared to 32 for the Liberty. In the Fever’s win over the Atlanta Dream on Thursday, the Fever had 15 free throw attempts to the Dream’s 23.
“We’re not looking for a change. We’re just looking for consistency,’ White said. ‘You know, I felt like the second half of Atlanta, at least at our place (on Tuesday), was at least consistent, right, and that’s that’s the thing that we’re looking for.”
Indiana center Aliyah Boston said the Fever have no choice but to accept the non-call.
“When it comes to accepting (the calls), it’s like we don’t really have a choice, because they’re going to call what they want to call,” Boston said. “So for us, I mean, even for me, I missed some of those easy buckets around the rim. I think for me, I have to put them in the rim just post hoc, and we just have to finish through contact. If we don’t get it, we don’t get it, but we have to give ourselves the best opportunity to get that basket.”
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