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‘I was due’: Caitlin Clark leads Indiana Fever past Sparks to first win of season

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‘I was due’: Caitlin Clark leads Indiana Fever past Sparks to first win of season


Caitlin Clark had 11 points and 10 rebounds for her first WNBA double-double and the Indiana Fever beat Los Angeles 78-73 on Friday night to snap a season-opening five-game skid in front of a Sparks record crowd of 19,103 that included several Hollywood stars.

“The first one feels really good,” said Clark, who also had eight assists.

Kelsey Mitchell led Indiana (1-5) with 18 points and Aliyah Boston and Temi Fagbenle had 17 each.

Clark’s rebounds were a career high. She missed her first seven three-point attempts, but finally made one of her trademark deep threes with 2:27 remaining in the game, triggering an explosion of cheers and applause. A giddy Clark high-fived actor and Iowa native Ashton Kutcher sitting courtside.

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“That’s a fellow Hawkeye, somebody that’s been very supportive of me over the course of my college career,” she said. “He was encouraging me the whole game.”

The game featured the youth and future of the WNBA, with No 1 draft pick Clark playing against No 2 pick Cameron Brink and fourth selection Rickea Jackson of the Sparks.

“They’re making a huge impact in our league,” Fever coach Christie Sides said before the game.

Brink had 15 points and nine rebounds and Jackson added a career-high 16 points off the bench for the Sparks (1-3). Dearica Hamby had 18 points and 12 rebounds.

Jason Sudeikis, Rosie O’Donnell, Kathy Griffin, DeMar DeRozan of the Chicago Bulls, Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors, USC star JuJu Watkins along with teammate Rayah Marshall and coach Lindsay Gottlieb were among the sellout home crowd for the Sparks’ first game at Crypto.com Arena this season.

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“The crowd was absolutely amazing, especially there at the end,” Clark said. “They were into it, they were invested.”

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) greets actor Ashton Kutcher after making a fourth-quarter three-pointer on Friday night. Photograph: Ashley Landis/AP

After trailing by 11 points early in the game, Boston, Fagbenle and Mitchell dominated the fourth quarter, with Mitchell hitting back-to-back three-pointers.

Brink made a three-pointer and Lexie Brown scored to draw the Sparks within 73-71. But Clark answered with her second deep three-pointer with about 40 seconds left and the crowd roared again as Indiana stayed in front, 76-71.

“I was due, like they had to go in,” said Clark, who was 4 of 14 from the field, 2 of 9 on three-point attempts. “I had missed so many throughout the game.”

The Fever were just 7 of 25 from long range; the Sparks also struggled, going 5 of 24.

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The Sparks played their first two home games in Long Beach, but with Clark and the Fever in town the game was moved to downtown Los Angeles.

Trailing 45-34, the Fever opened the third quarter on a 16-3 run to lead 50-48. Fagbenle and Boston combined to score all of Indiana’s points, with Fagbenle’s 3-pointer capping the spurt. Clark didn’t score but she came up with a big steal at midcourt and after she missed Boston scored.

“She was running our offense. She’s learning her system, learning her players,” Sides said of Clark. “She hit some huge shots and did everything we needed her to do.”

The teams meet again Tuesday in Indianapolis.





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Indiana

Slim chances for a white Christmas in Lafayette area and in Indiana

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Slim chances for a white Christmas in Lafayette area and in Indiana


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  • Indiana is unlikely to have a white Christmas because of forecasted warmer-than-normal temperatures.
  • Temperatures on Christmas Day are expected to be in the 40s or 50s, possibly reaching the 60s.
  • The normal high temperature for the Lafayette area this time of year is 36 degrees.

LAFAYETTE, IN — Hopes for a white Christmas are fading quickly in Indiana.

“I know earlier in the month we were thinking we might have a higher chance of a white Christmas,” National Weather Service meteorologist Cody Moore said, “but unfortunately, I have some bad news for you. A lot of long-range guidance has been consistent showing a pattern on Christmas Day featuring much warmer than normal temperatures for the region and the chance for some rainfall.

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“It does look like we’ll be above average, temperatures at least in the 40s, maybe 50s,” Moore said on Wednesday, just three days after subzero temperatures pummeled the area.

With still eight days until Christmas, the forecasts closer to Dec. 25 might bump the expected high temps up even into the 60s, Moore said.

Normal temperatures this time of year for Lafayette are 36 for a high and 22 for a low.

“It looks like you might be able to keep your heavy winter jackets in the closet for now,” Moore said.

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How will a Christmas with temperatures in the 40s, 50s or even 60s compare to Christmases past?

In 1982, Lafayette’s record-warm Christmas was 64 degrees. Its record cold temperature was 12 below zero in 2000.

So now that the dreams of a white Christmas appear dashed, what about January or February?

The Climate Prediction Center published a three-month forecast in November, and an update is expected in the next couple of days.

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But last month, center’s forecast for January, February and March was for Hoosiers to have an equal chance of above and/or below average temperatures.

“We’ll see how that translates with the storm track,” Moore said.

The Climate Prediction Center forecasts warmer than normal temperatures in the southern United States and below normal temperatures in the Northern Plains.

“That puts the storm track right through Indiana, which makes sense because the Climate Prediction Center has Indiana as a bullseye for a pattern favoring above-normal precipitation,” Moore said. Temperatures will decide whether that precipitation falls as rain or snow — or ice or freezing rain.

Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.

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Freshmen from Indiana show potential in UConn-Butler game: ‘Heck of a player’

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Freshmen from Indiana show potential in UConn-Butler game: ‘Heck of a player’


Former UConn forward, NBC Sports broadcaster Donny Marshall knows a thing or two about talented UConn guards.

The former Husky played for legendary coach Jim Calhoun and was teammates with the fifth pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, 10-time NBA All-Star Ray Allen. Watching UConn play against Butler on Tuesday night, Marshall said he sees a lot of Allen in reigning Indiana Mr. Basketball Braylon Mullins.

Mullins made the second start of his career against the Bulldogs. The former Greenfield-Central star missed UConn’s first six games of the regular season with an injury, but the 6-foot-6 guard is quickly coming into his own and showing why he’s a projected lottery pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.

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Against Butler, Mullins showed off his sweet jump shot, going 2 for 5 from 3-point range. He finished with 12 points, three rebounds, two assists, two blocks and one steal.

“He’s a scorer,” Butler coach Thad Matta said of Mullins. “He’s got a scorer’s mentality. He gets his shot off quick. They move him around and create some angles for him. Obviously, he’s a heck of a player.”

Mullins did most of his damage in the first half, scoring eight of his 12 points before halftime. The former five-star recruit was the highest-ranked player in UConn’s 2025 class. Butler’s top-ranked recruit, Azavier “Stink” Robinson isn’t the NBA prospect Mullins is, but he held his own after a shaky start to the game.

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Robinson has been thrust into the starting lineup with starter Jalen Jackson out for the season with an ankle injury. Robinson looked out of sorts at times in the first half, going scoreless with two assists and a turnover. In the second half, Matta moved him off the ball, giving him catch-and-shoot looks, and opportunities to drive to the basket without worrying about running the offense.

The former Lawrence North star responded with one of the better halves of his career, scoring 10 points on 3 for 6 shooting, including 2 for 5 from 3 to go along with two rebounds, one assist, one steal and one turnover.

Facing a veteran team like UConn, nothing comes easy. UConn’s guards harass ball handlers and getting into an offensive set is not easy. This time last year, Robinson was still in high school and, on most nights, the most athletic player on the court. Playing a UConn team where the goal is a national championship, Robinson was forced to grow, and he did not back down from the challenge in the second half.

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“He’s coming along,” Matta said of Robinson. “That’s the first Big East road game of his career against maybe the best team in the country. It tells you how tough he is. He’s resilient. He keeps going.”



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Indiana's Curt Cignetti becomes the first back-to-back winner of AP coach of the year

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Indiana's Curt Cignetti becomes the first back-to-back winner of AP coach of the year


Curt Cignetti has been named The Associated Press coach of the year in college football for the second consecutive season. He is the first coach to win the award back-to-back since it was first presented in 1998. Cignetti has led Indiana to unprecedented success, with a 24-2 record over two seasons. The Hoosiers are 13-0 this year, Big Ten champions for the first time since 1967, and the top seed in the College Football Playoff. Cignetti received 47 first-place votes. Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire and Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea received two each, and Virginia’s Tony Elliott got one.



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