The WNBA has upgraded the technical foul on Connecticut’s Marina Mabrey for shoving Caitlin Clark to the floor during Tuesday night’s game against Indiana to a Flagrant-2, a person familiar with the situation said Wednesday. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because no official announcement had been made.
Any flagrant foul comes with an automatic fine. The person also said the league has fined the Fever’s Sophie Cunningham for her role in the on-court melee that occurred after she fouled Jacy Sheldon with 46.1 seconds left. Cunningham received a Flagrant-2 on Tuesday night.
There will be no further penalties for on-court actions during the game, the person said. The WNBA doesn’t disclose the amount of money players are fined.
The play at the end of the game was the culmination of tensions that had been building throughout. Mabrey’s technical followed a skirmish in the third quarter. Sheldon poked Caitlin Clark in the eye while defending her. Clark pushed Sheldon away and Mabrey forcefully pushed Clark, knocking the star guard to the ground. Clark and Tina Charles were also assessed technical fouls.
In a pool report, official Ashley Gloss said the contact made by Mabrey didn’t rise to the level of an ejection or meet the criteria for a Flagrant-2.
After the contest, both teams said missed calls and poor game management by the officials led to the melee at the end. Fever coach Stephanie White said “bad officiating” is a league-wide issue and that “everybody [in the WNBA] is getting better, except the officials.”
“I started talking to the officials in the first quarter, and we knew this was going to happen,” White said. “You could tell it was going to happen. So, they’ve got to get control of it. They’ve got to be better.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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