Sophie Cunningham isn’t apologizing for her late-game ejection earlier this week during the Indiana Fever’s win over the Connecticut Sun after defending Caitlin Clark following a hard foul. Clark was shoved in the back by Marina Mabrey in the third quarter during a melee that began when Connecticut’s Jacy Sheldon raked Clark across the face. Mabrey was eventually hit with a Flagrant 2 after the game.
Cunningham retaliated in the final minute of play with a toss of Sheldon to the floor on a layup attempt in a lopsided game. Cunningham addressed the play — and her issue with league’s officiating — following Saturday’s open practice.
“I’m not focused on the extracurricular activities,” Cunningham said. “During that, it was just part of the game. I think the refs had a lot to do with that. It was a build up for a couple years now of them just not protecting the star player of the WNBA. And so, at the end of the day, I’m going to protect my teammates.
“That’s what I do. I’m a team player, so it’s all good.”
Fever’s Sophie Cunningham pokes fun at ejection following late-game foul, skirmish with Sun’s Jacy Sheldon
Brad Crawford
WNBA referees have been under fire all season for swallowing their whistle on plays involving Clark, who has been pushed around by many of the league’s veteran players.
Fever coach Stephanie White has griped about officiating several times and reiterated the chippy moments following Tuesday’s win.
“I think that it was pretty obvious that stuff was brewing when officials don’t get control of the ball game, when they allow that stuff to happen,” White said. “And it’s been happening all season long. It’s not just this game, it’s been happening all season long.
“When you allow them to play physical and you allow these things to happen, they’re gonna compete. And they’re gonna have their teammates’ backs. It’s exactly what you expect out of fierce competition. I started talking to the officials in the first quarter, and we knew this was gonna happen. You could tell it was gonna happen. They gotta get control of it, they gotta be better.”
Connecticut coach Rachid Meziane saw no point in Cunningham’s foul.
“I did not understand. When you are winning the game by 17 points and you are doing this, to me, stupid foul,” Meziane said. “This is just disrespectful and I do not know how Lindsey [Allen] and Jacy [Sheldon] get ejected from the game when they did nothing.”
Cunningham said Thursday night’s loss to the Golden State Valkyries was disappointing. It snapped a two-game win streak for the Fever, who are 6-6 overall entering Sunday’s bout with Las Vegas.
“Empty offensive possessions, we were sloppy defensively … they just out-worked us,” Cunningham said. “That’s not something we want in our DNA. I think you’re going to see some spunk from us. Today was a little quiet, but I think we were just dialed in. We had a fun group, a goofy group. But sometimes you need to get pissed off and dialed in and I think that’s what you saw today.”