Angel Reese Called For Flagrant Foul After Hitting Caitlin Clark’s Head During Defensive Play, Social Media Debates Rivalry

Source: Emilee Chinn / Getty

A ngel Reese and Caitlin Clark have been constantly compared since they first faced off in the Women’s NCAA championship two years ago.

Now, both have graduated to the WNBA and on Sunday, their teams, the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky, faced off.

Clark’s Fever bested Angel’s Sky 91-83 in their second professional matchup, as she dropped 23 points. But things got a bit heated beyond the box score when Clark was driving to the basket, and Reese attempted to swat the ball from behind. Reese’s block attempt wasn’t successful, and instead, hit Clark in the head, causing her to fall to the floor.

It was ruled a flagrant foul, and Reese took issue with the ruling after the game and knew that a foul against Clark would get a ton of publicity even though it was just a basketball play.

“Basketball play, I can’t control the refs. They affected the game, obviously, a lot tonight.” Reese said. “I’m always going for the ball. But y’all are going to play that clip, what, 20 times before Monday?”

She then insinuated that the officiating crew may have displayed some favoritism.

“I think we went up strong a lot of times, and we didn’t get a lot of calls,” Reese said. “Going back and looking at the film, I saw a lot of calls that weren’t made. I guess some people got a special whistle.”

Clark also downplayed the foul after the game, agreeing it was a clean play because Reese was just focused on playing good defense.

“It’s just a part of basketball,” she said. “It is what it is. Just trying to make a play on the ball and get the block. It happens.”

Despite getting into foul trouble, Reese still scored 11 points, grabbed a team-high 13 rebounds, and dished out five assists, tying a WNBA rookie record with her sixth consecutive double-double.

See how social media is reacting to the WNBA’s hottest rivalry and flagrant foul below.