Caitlin Clark had 28 points and 12 assists and the Indiana Fever overcame a record-tying nine three-pointers from Arike Ogunbowale in a 100-93 victory over the Dallas Wings on Sunday.

Kelsey Mitchell scored 36 points, including a three that gave the Fever a four-point lead with 1:58 remaining in a meeting of teams that entered with matching three-game winning streaks.

Ogunbowale finished 9 of 16 from long range – beating her previous career best of seven – and scored 34 points. The All-Star Game MVP missed two attempts at a record 10th 3-pointer, including one with the Wings trailing by six in the final minute.

Ogunbowale, who tied a career high with eight rebounds, matched the league record for 3s held by Mitchell (2019) and Seattle’s Jewell Loyd (2023).

“I salute people like Arike because off the court, we’re really great friends,” Mitchell said. “We tend to work out and train together in the offseason. I wasn’t expecting any other way coming from a person like that.”

Clark and Mitchell hit five deep-shots apiece, combining to go 10 for 18 as the Fever shot 50% from long range and 53% overall.

“When you have two guards that are both making plays, it puts the other team in the tough position of what to take away, who to put on who,” Clark said. “We’re definitely shooting it well. We’re playing off each other well. We’re looking for each other, and we’re getting downhill, too. I think it’s been a good balance of everything.”

Clark was coming off a career-high 31 points in a win over fellow rookie of the year contender Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky. She set a WNBA record with 19 assists in her first regular-season visit to Texas in the game before the Olympic break, a 101-93 Indiana loss when the Fever were on the edge of the playoff picture.

Now, Indiana (17-16) is above .500 for the first time with Clark and solidly in the playoff mix while the Wings (9-23) are still hoping to recover from a slow start triggered by injuries to several key players. Dallas, who won their first playoff series last year, are two games out of the final postseason spot with eight remaining.

The Fever are 6-1 since the Olympic break with three of those victories on the road. The reward is six consecutive home games starting Wednesday against the last-place Los Angeles Sparks before the regular-season finale at Washington.

“They’ve laid it out there. We just keep talking about emptying our tank,” Indiana coach Christie Sides said. “The confidence that they’re playing with, I’m proud of the road games. The road games have been tough. We just keep talking about momentum, keeping our foot on the gas.”

After making her eighth three-pointer in the third quarter, Ogunbowale was called for a foul for not giving Kelsey Mitchell a landing area on a three.

The Wings challenged, and lost, which led to Ogunbowale getting a technical foul. The Fever scored five points on that possession, cutting their deficit to 67-64 after Dallas had taken its biggest lead at 64-55 less than two minutes earlier.

Mitchell added two free throws after her crucial three as the Fever scored eight consecutive points for a 99-91 lead with 39 seconds remaining.

Satou Sabally scored 25 points, and Natasha Howard had 18 points and nine assists for the Wings. NaLyssa Smith had 14 points and eight rebounds for Indiana.

Purdue did exactly what they should have done to an FCS team after a one-win season, maybe even more convincing than many believed it would be.

A lot of A’s are to be handed out after such a dominant performance at Ross-Ade Stadium,

Offense:

Hudson Card torched the undermanned Indiana State defense, completing 96% of his passes onto one of the best days a quarterback has ever had in the old gold and black.

He completed 24 of 25 passes for 273 yards and four touchdowns, while the total yards may not be one of the best of quarterbacks to play at Purdue, the efficiency and completion percentage sure is.

Devin Mockobee paced the starting unit with 11 carries for 89 yards, but did not score a touchdown. But, Reggie Love II, Elijah Jackson, and Jaheim Merriweather all scored rushing the ball, including a nice 69-yard touchdown by Elijah Jackson.

Twelve different Boilermakers caught passes on Saturday, none made more of an impact than Tight End, Max Klare, who has star player written all over him. Jahmal Edrine is physical on the outside, he should provide Purdue the type of presence on the outside that they lacked so much last year.

The Offensive Line played well, they were much bigger, stronger and faster than the Indiana State defensive line, but still gave up two sacks, with Card and Browne both taking a sack.

Offensive Grade: A

Defense:

Will Heldt, the sophomore Rush End from Carmel, Indiana, was the star of the defense, having two sacks and tallying up 7 tackles. Jeffrey M’ba was unblockable as well as an interior defensive lineman, racking up 6 tackles.

A bright spot in the secondary was Antonio Stevens, who many years ago suffered a severe injury and has worked his way back to being the player that everyone thought he could be. He is a mountain of a man coming to hit you from the safety position, at 6-2 200+ pounds.

Kydran Jenkins picked up where he left off as well, tallying a sack on the afternoon and five tackles.

The Purdue defense held Indiana State to just 104 yards rushing on 43 attempts, (2.4 Yards Per Carry) and 50 yards of total passing, as the freshman quarterback for Indiana State was just 5 for 10 on the day, they forced the Sycamores to punt ten times during Saturday’s contest, which has to be close to a record for the Boilermakers.

Overall Grade: A

Special Teams:

Purdue did not attempt a field goal, as they scored on 7 of 10 possesions and punted the other three times, but they were 7 for 7 on the PATs, as that operation looked very smooth.

Crimmons averaged nearly 47 yards per punt, pinning Indiana State inside the 20 once, and forcing a fair catch once as well.

Overall Grade: A

This is exactly what Boilermaker fans wanted and needed to see from Purdue against a FCS opponent. Purdue will now head into the bye week, in which they are undefeated, before they host Notre Dame on September 14th, at 3:30 PM.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Each week at Hoosiers On SI we make a score prediction on the Indiana football game and suggest three keys to the game.

Since this was my first go-around with the prediction and three keys – hi, I’m Todd Golden, the new guy at Hoosiers On SI – I thought it would be fun to revisit this after the game to see how well I did. Or how poorly. Or whether the truth is somewhere in-between.

Indiana won 31-7 over Florida International on Saturday at Memorial Stadium in a game that deviated very little from what was expected.

The ease of victory was considerable, but will the devils in those details serve up a tasty plate of satisfaction? Or a big plate of humble pie? Read on and find out.

Let’s start with the predicted three keys:

1. Protect Kurtis Rourke

Statistically, it seems that Indiana was passable in this department. FIU sacked Rourke twice, and the Panthers were credited with two quarterback hurries. Rourke dropped back to pass 24 times, so while that ratio isn’t perfect, it’s also not a major concern.

Anecdotally, it seemed like Rourke was under a bit of pressure at times, but are looks deceiving?

In its grades of the game, Pro Football Focus said Rourke was under pressure on 27.6% of his passing plays and that he was pressured eight times overall. Not constant pressure by any means, but enough to rush a few throws.

PFF.com also noted that Rourke was never hit as he threw and that of the six quarterback pressures it counted? Three came from right tackle Trey Wedig’s side of the field.

Given all of that, you’d have to say Indiana succeeded while also wondering what protection will be like against a more formidable opponent.

2. Shut down FIU’s run game

This was an unequivocal success for the Indiana defense.

FIU gained just 53 rushing yards and averaged a paltry 1.8 yards per carry. In the third quarter? FIU’s rushing total was minus-6 yards.

In college football, quarterback sacks count in the rushing total, and that can often skew the rushing stats. But even if you take out the 24 yards FIU quarterback Keyone Jenkins lost in sacks, the Panthers were still well below 100 team rushing yards.

As I wrote, this made FIU predictable. Jenkins, to his credit, completed 20 of 29 passes for 129 yards. But with the run game stopped, Indiana piled on the pressure and constantly had Jenkins on the run.

3. Be patient, because FIU might wear down

This never really came into play given that the Hoosiers were in control by the final period.

As we wrote in the three keys story, one of the things that stood out for FIU in 2023 was its fourth quarter scoring plunge. The Panthers scored just 25 points in the fourth quarter in 12 games last season.

Indiana kept FIU off the scoreboard in the second half, although the Panthers did have 75 total yards in the final period. Reserves were on the field for part of the quarter, so this key never really achieved relevance.

Score prediction

On Friday, I wrote this:

“I don’t think it’s going to be a coronation for Indiana, but I also don’t think it’s going to be a nail-biter either. Indiana has too much talent to burn, especially on the offensive side of the ball. The anticipation level is always high for the first game, but it will be more so as the lid-lifter on the Cignetti era.

With so many players on the roster who have proven they can win? I think those 13 James Madison transfers will show the way in an exciting, but measured, style of play.”

Just call me Nostradamus. Had the tenor of the game just right. Those JMU transfers were indeed impactful, especially on the defensive side.

The soothsaying was going well – until “Nostradamus” got carried away peering too far into my crystal ball.

“Indiana also has the playmakers to press FIU into turnovers. I think the Hoosiers force at least three on Saturday.”

Indiana forced one, an Amare Ferrell interception off of a tipped pass by D’Angelo Ponds. In fact, Indiana was fortunate that neither of the fumbles Rourke lost flipped the turnover margin in FIU’s favor.

As for the score? I predicted a 41-21 win for Indiana. I was close on the margin, but I over-estimated Indiana’s offense (and FIU’s for that matter) and under-estimated Indiana’s defense.

We’ll give it all another go next week.