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Caitlin Clark has all but solidified her WNBA Rookie of the Year title, and yesterday's game against the Atlanta Dream helped the cause. The 2024 WNBA No. 1 overall pick recorded her 21st game of the season with at least 15 points and five assists, the most by any player in WNBA history, per CNN.
Monday's game ended 84-79 with Clark scoring 19 points, seven assists, seven rebounds, two steals, and one block. She also made four three-pointers, bringing her season total to 85, tying the rookie record set by Rhyne Howard in 2022.
There was a lot of energy in the crowd when Clark made history. The game set the highest attendance for a WNBA game in Georgia, with 17,608 fans. According to the outlet, it's the fifth time this season that a team's attendance record has been broken when the Indiana Fever was the visiting team.
Indiana is now 14-16 with Monday's win, making them third in the East and seventh overall in the league standings, its highest regular season win total since 2016.
After the game, Clark told reporters she feels like a "kid that plays basketball and has a lot of fun." “I don’t show up and expect these crowds. Sure, maybe you’ve gotten a little bit used to it, but for me, that’s not anything that ever gets old," she continued.
"It really is something that’s really cool, especially as a young girl who grew up going to games. As a young girl, I would have come to a game in a building like this and seen this type of crowd, I think I would have been kind of in heaven," the guard added.
There's no denying the impact the WNBA is having on women's sports, and there have been eyes on them like never before. “It gives me a lot of joy to see the impact that I’ve been able to have, my teammates have been able to have, women’s basketball players all across the country have been able to have,” she shared.
Rookie of the Year
On Tuesday, ESPN named Clark as the leading contender for the Rookie of the Year, with Angel Reese as the top challenger. ESPN reporters Kevin Pelton, Alexa Philippou, and Michael Voepel cited Clark’s playmaking as her strongest asset.
Clark leads the WNBA with 8.2 assists per game, has set the rookie assists record, and is on track to break the all-time single-season assists record. She currently has 247 assists and needs 317 to surpass Alyssa Thomas for the record, per Athlon Sports.