{"id":638000,"date":"2026-05-12T06:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/638000\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T06:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:06:09","slug":"coach-white-plans-to-increase-sophie-cunninghams-role-after-fevers-season-opener-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/638000\/","title":{"rendered":"Coach White Plans to Increase Sophie Cunningham’s Role After Fever’s Season Opener Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sophie Cunningham<\/a> marked her return from a season-ending knee injury<\/a> with a quiet performance in the Indiana Fever<\/a>\u2019s season-opening loss to the Dallas Wings<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Cunningham got the start for head coach Stephanie White, but the veteran guard finished with just three points on 1-of-2 shooting in 26 minutes of action. She added four rebounds, \u00a0three assists and one triple, but it wasn\u2019t enough to help lift the Fever. Indiana lost its first game of the new WNBA<\/a> season to Paige Bueckers<\/a> and Co. 107-104<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Speaking to reporters during Monday\u2019s practice, Coach White conceded that the Fever need to utilize Cunningham more when she\u2019s on the court. This hints at a potential change in their approach for their next game, with Cunningham likely playing a bigger role.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I thought she was good,\u201d White said. \u201cYou know, Sophie’s solid for us \u2014 on the defensive end, rebounding, her activity level, her communication.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to find her more though. I mean, you know, she\u2019s a knockdown three-point shooter. I thought we missed her a lot. We missed her open looks.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Indiana<\/p>\n

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham (8).\u00a9 Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Cuningham played the fourth-most minutes for the Fever in their season-opener behind star trio Caitlin Clark<\/a>, Kelsey Mitchell<\/a> and Aliyah Boston<\/a>. Combined, those three accounted for 73 out of Indiana\u2019s 104 points. They also attempted 20 three-pointers between them, knocking down just five.<\/p>\n

As White said, one of Cunningham\u2019s strengths is her effectiveness from beyond the arc. Last season, the 6-foot-1 guard connected on 1.7 triples per game on a 43.2% clip. White knows that they need to see more of this from Cunningham in 2026.<\/p>\n

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White also made it clear that she wants Cunningham to be more involved moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, she\u2019s getting back to being an elite cutter because she\u2019s also a very good cutter, and she\u2019s a great ball mover,\u201d the Fever coach said. \u201cSo we\u2019ve just got to get her more touches on the offensive end and just continue to rely on her to be that communicator and leader for us on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cunningham will be looking to bounce back on Wednesday as the Fever take on the Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> at Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n

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Related: Caitlin Clark Leaves Comment on Lexie Hull\u2019s Latest Post<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on May 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the WNBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham marked her return from a season-ending knee injury with a quiet performance in the Indiana Fever\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[2648,1760,242401,2834,2839,4806,3029,4805,99,4803,434],"class_list":["post-638000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-aliyah-boston","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-coach-white","tag-dallas-wings","tag-indiana-fever","tag-kelsey-mitchell","tag-los-angeles-sparks","tag-sophie-cunningham","tag-sports","tag-stephanie-white","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}