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Apr 25, 2026; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) reacts during the first half against the New York Liberty at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images
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Apr 25, 2026; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) reacts during the first half against the New York Liberty at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images
Just when it looked like the game had slipped away from the Indiana Fever, Caitlin Clark delivered another one of her signature moments. With just 3.1 seconds left on the clock, Clark buried a deep 27-foot three-pointer to tie the game against the Washington Mystics and force overtime.
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The entire Gainbridge Fieldhouse exploded as 15,673 fans rose to their feet, fully believing the momentum had now shifted in Indiana’s favor. For a moment, it felt like the Fever had completely stolen the game. But despite Clark’s late heroics, it simply wasn’t meant to be.
Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen both registered career-high performances to help the Mystics escape with a 104-102 victory in overtime. And after the heartbreaking overtime loss, Caitlin Clark opened up about both her late-game heroics and the bigger issues that ultimately cost the Indiana Fever the game.
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“That’s like the hardest thing as a basketball player, is when you’re not making shots, to really stay in it. So, I was certainly proud of myself. Really, really battled,” she said.
Caitlin Clark finished the night with 32 points, 8 assists, and 7 made three-pointers in what was easily her best offensive performance of the young 2026 season so far. Clark scored 17 of her 32 points in the fourth quarter alone and finally broke out of her recent shooting slump by knocking down seven threes, including five in the second half.
It was Clark who, with 6:51 left on the clock, buried her fifth three-pointer of the night to give the Indiana Fever their first lead since the second quarter. Clark and her teammates had been nearly flawless offensively with the game on the line, yet the defeat still left Clark questioning the Fever’s defensive identity.
“If we don’t have three clunky quarters,” she added, “we don’t force ourselves into basketball heroics like we don’t want to play that way. I know it’s exciting for the crowd, but we should have had ourselves in a position, especially after the first quarter, to control this ball game, and we really didn’t.”
The Fever and the Mystics traded blows throughout a chaotic fourth quarter that featured six lead changes. There was almost a seventh as Sonia Citron, who finished with a team-high 30 points, drilled a half-court shot at the buzzer that was waved off for coming just a split-second too late.
Washington eventually held on in overtime, with Sonia Citron and rookie Cotie McMahon, who made her WNBA debut on Friday, both stepping up with five points each in the extra period.
The Washington Mystics dominated the paint with 58 points compared to just 28 from the Indiana Fever, which once again highlighted Indiana’s defensive struggles. Fever forward Monique Billings admitted that while the Mystics “made tough shots,” the team also failed to properly execute its defensive coverages and needed to communicate much better on that end of the floor.
After opening the night on fire and knocking down six threes in the first quarter alone, the Fever completely lost their rhythm through the second and third quarters. To put things in perspective, Indiana managed to score just nine points in the second quarter.
“Our biggest room for improvement is when things aren’t going well, we still need to be able to defend and get stops,” Clark added, as per Scott Agness.
Even analyst Rachel DeMita highlighted how the Indiana Fever were simply not good enough defensively in her latest YouTube video. “(The defense) wasn’t setting good screens, including Aaliyah Boston. Like, there was a time Caitlin Clark was coming off of a high double stagger screen. Neither one of those players set a good screen. Did nothing for the defense. Like, the defense got straight through them.”
When you become the eighth WNBA team in a single season to suffer multiple losses despite scoring 100-plus points, especially after playing only three games, criticism is naturally bound to follow. And it also wasn’t just restricted to Rachel DeMita, as Jason Whitlock also piled onto the misery.
“Absolute coaching malpractice in Indianapolis,” Whitlock wrote on X during the game. “I’m a little bit behind (2 mins left in 2nd QTR). Stephanie White figured out a rotation that left Boston and Clark separated for far too long and when they’ve been on the court together, no pick-and-roll. Offense collapsed.”
Now, for the Indiana Fever, watching Aliyah Boston leave the court and not return was certainly not part of the plan. A key piece of Indiana’s frontcourt, Boston suffered another lower leg injury that limited her to just 21 minutes against the Washington Mystics. She finished the night with nine points while shooting 3-of-8 from the field and 1-of-3 from beyond the arc, along with four rebounds, one assist, and one steal.
And not having Boston available late in the game was obviously a huge reason the Fever struggled defensively down the stretch. Indiana Fever fans will now be hoping that Aliyah Boston’s injury is nothing serious. But one major positive for Indiana was seeing Caitlin Clark finally get her shooting touch back.
Clark returning to form is exactly what the Fever need moving forward, and despite the heartbreaking loss, the team still walked away believing this group is much closer to becoming the championship-level side they expect themselves to be.
Caitlin Clark’s Late Heroics Leave Stephanie White Encouraged Despite Fever Collapse
With this loss behind them, the Indiana Fever currently sit with two losses and one win, which came against the Los Angeles Sparks.
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Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) speaks with an official Friday, May 15, 2026, during the first half of a game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
But head coach Stephanie White doesn’t really care about the scoreboard because what’s important for her is how her team fought.
“I thought our whole group showed resilience in that rally,” coach White said after the game. “We showed the ability to make tough shots, we had some really good time and score execution moments, offensively and defensively. We just have to have more of it consistently.”
And honestly, that probably remains the biggest takeaway for Indiana moving forward. The Fever have already shown flashes of how dangerous they can look offensively when Clark, Kelsey Mitchell, and the rest of the lineup are playing freely and more aggressively. But at the same time, this game also exposed how quickly momentum can disappear when their offensive rhythm falls apart for long stretches.
So now, the Fever will quickly turn their attention toward another major test when they host the Seattle Storm on May 17 as their homestand continues.
