Caitlin Clark Sets WNBA Record With Back-to-Back 30-Point, 10-Assist Games as Fever Rout Sun 111-91

A Slow Start, Then a Blowout

The Indiana Fever trailed the Connecticut Sun 28-19 after the first quarter Friday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, according to the Indianapolis Star. Then Caitlin Clark decided that wasn't going to stand.

Indiana outscored Connecticut 39-15 in the second quarter, according to Fieldhouse Files, turning a nine-point deficit into a 58-43 halftime lead. The Fever never let go, closing out a 111-91 win in front of a sellout crowd of 17,274.

Clark and Mitchell, Again

Clark finished with 34 points on 12-of-19 shooting, including 6-of-12 from three-point range, adding 12 assists, five rebounds and three steals in 34 minutes, according to USA Today's Hawkeye Wire. Mitchell matched her with 34 points of her own.

It was the fourth time this season Clark and Mitchell have both scored 30-plus points in the same game, and the second straight game they've done it, according to Fox News and Fieldhouse Files.

Clark's night carried extra weight. She became the first player in WNBA history to record at least 30 points and 10 assists in back-to-back games, according to Sports Illustrated. Her fifth such 30-10 game this season represents the sixth of her career. Sports Illustrated reported the rest of WNBA history combined has four.

Hawkeye Wire added two more historical marks from the same box score: Clark is now the first player in league history with at least 800 points and 300 assists in a single season, and the first with 300-plus assists and 100-plus made threes in one season.

The 34-point game was also Clark's 13th double-double of the season and 33rd of her career, moving her past Minnesota's Courtney Williams (32) for second all-time among guards in career double-doubles, according to Hawkeye Wire.

Sports Illustrated noted Clark now has 22 career games with at least 20 points and 10 assists, 12 of them this season alone. The next-closest player, Courtney Vandersloot, has 10, in her 16th season.

"I feel like I'm finding my groove a little bit," Clark said after the game, according to Sports Illustrated.

Fever forward Makayla Timpson, making her 10th straight start, called Clark her "GOAT" after the win, per Sports Illustrated. Timpson finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.

Mitchell, meanwhile, extended her own WNBA-record streak to 24 consecutive games with at least 20 points, according to Fieldhouse Files, a stretch that dates back more than two months.

On exactly where Mitchell and Clark stand in the league's scoring race, the coverage splits. Fox News and WFMD, which ran an identical wire report, said the 34-point night "moved her into the league lead in total points." Fieldhouse Files, a Fever-focused outlet, instead put Mitchell and Clark second and third, respectively, in scoring among WNBA players entering the break. Total points scored across a season and per-game scoring average are different measurements, and neither outlet specified which one it meant, so both figures are reported here as stated by their sources.

Last Game in Indianapolis for the Sun

Friday's matchup marked Connecticut's final visit to Indianapolis, according to Fieldhouse Files. The Sun are relocating to Houston next season. Connecticut, at 10-29, played like a team with nothing to lose early on, building that nine-point first-quarter lead before Indiana's defense and the Clark-Mitchell combination took over.

Standings and What's Next

Indiana's win, combined with the Atlanta Dream's loss to Portland on Friday, pushed the Fever (26-14) up to fourth place in the standings, according to the Indianapolis Star and Yahoo Sports. Fourth place currently puts Indiana in position to host a first-round playoff series.

The Fever have four regular-season games left after the break: Toronto, Washington, and two against Minnesota, per the Indianapolis Star. Indiana needs to win as many of those as possible to lock down a hosting seed.

Friday's win also set a new single-season franchise record with 26 total wins, two more than the team had in all of last season, according to Fieldhouse Files. It was Indiana's 19th 100-point game of the season, a franchise record, per Fox News.

The Fever's next game is Sept. 18 on the road against the Toronto Tempo, once the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup wraps up. Whether Clark, Mitchell and the rest of Indiana's roster carry this stretch of historic performances through four remaining games and into a playoff push for a home seed remains to be seen.