{"id":628657,"date":"2026-04-25T23:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T23:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/628657\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T23:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T23:01:11","slug":"caitlin-clark-scores-7-points-in-fevers-preseason-opener-vs-liberty-playing-17-minutes-in-109-91-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/628657\/","title":{"rendered":"Caitlin Clark scores 7 points in Fever’s preseason opener vs. Liberty, playing 17 minutes in 109-91 win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caitlin Clark<\/a> returned to a WNBA court for the first time since last July for the Indiana Fever<\/a>\u2019s preseason opener versus the New York Liberty<\/a> on Saturday. She scored seven points in Indiana\u2019s 109-91 victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Clark quickly established herself, scoring the game\u2019s first basket on a floater in the lane. Two possessions later, she drilled a long 3-pointer from 29 feet.<\/p>\n

The Fever<\/a> led 32-24 after the opening 10 minutes, but quickly lost that advantage when the Liberty scored 10 unanswered points to begin the second quarter \u2014 all of them from Breanna Stewart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New York<\/a> went on top 39-34 after a layup by Han Xu, returning to the WNBA after playing last season in Australia. However, Indiana rallied to finish the first half with a 53-48 lead, powered by Kelsey Mitchell<\/a> scoring 10 straight points.<\/p>\n

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Indiana maintained a 74-68 lead going into the fourth quarter, then went on a 21-4 surge to put the game out of reach. Free-agent addition Shatori Walker-Kimbrough<\/a> scored nine points for the Fever during the run.<\/p>\n

After winning WNBA Rookie of the Year honors<\/a> in 2024, Clark was limited to 13 games last season due to quad, groin and ankle injuries. As the Fever opened training camp last week, head coach Stephanie White said that the star guard would likely see fewer practice reps and that approach presumably translated to preseason games as well.<\/p>\n

Clark played just 17 minutes Saturday, all in the first half.<\/p>\n

Mitchell and Walker-Kimbrough led the Fever with 18 points. Sophie Cunningham<\/a> was the third Indiana player in double figures, tallying 13 points and shooting 3-for-6 on 3-pointers. First-round pick Raven Johnson scored six points and dished out eight assists.<\/p>\n

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Xu scored 20 points to top the Liberty, while Stewart added 16 with 5 rebounds in 12 minutes. Rookie Anneli Maley notched 13 points with 6 rebounds and 3 assists, and Rebekah Gardner<\/a> scored 11.<\/p>\n

The Fever played their preseason opener without Aliyah Boston<\/a>, still recovering from the lower leg injury she sustained in March during the Unrivaled playoffs. Lexie Hull<\/a> also sat out the game with a hamstring injury, while new addition Ty Harris was sidelined due to a knee issue.<\/p>\n

For the Liberty, Satou Sabally<\/a> was out for \u201creconditioning,\u201d according to the injury report. New Liberty head coach Chris DeMarco told reporters<\/a> on Friday that \u201cshe\u2019s not at 100 percent\u201d while continuing to recover from symptoms for a concussion sustained during last year\u2019s WNBA Finals<\/a> and caused Sabally to miss the 2026 Unrivaled season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caitlin Clark returned to a WNBA court for the first time since last July for the Indiana Fever\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[4655,4657,49,735,48,6003,2803,4650,7086,3430,3457,33956,199456,4659,54787,10879,82,235535,235534,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-628657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-aliyah-boston","9":"tag-breanna-stewart","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-caitlin-clark","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-fever","14":"tag-indiana-fever","15":"tag-kelsey-mitchell","16":"tag-lexie-hull","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-liberty","19":"tag-preseason-opener","20":"tag-rebekah-gardner","21":"tag-satou-sabally","22":"tag-shatori-walker-kimbrough","23":"tag-sophie-cunningham","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-straight-points","26":"tag-unanswered-points","27":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}