Indiana’s Caitlin Clark says she expects to play against Seattle despite sore ankle

SEATTLE (AP) — Caitlin Clark intends to play Wednesday night despite a stiff and sore left ankle when the Indiana Fever open a road trip in Seattle against the Storm.

Clark rolled her ankle in the first half of Monday’s loss to Connecticut, but returned in the second half.

“It’s about what you’d expect when you turn it like that. I feel like I’ll definitely be ready to go and ready to play,” Clark said. “Luckily I’ve dealt with some ankle injuries before so it’s nothing really out of the ordinary.”

Clark missed the final 5½ minutes of the first half against the Sun after injuring the ankle on a screen. She returned in the second half and finished with 17 points and five assists, but the Fever dropped to 0-4 with the 88-84 loss.

Clark said she plans to tape up the ankle and hope the adrenaline will help get rid of any lingering soreness.

She’s also hoping a return to Seattle can spark the Fever. Wednesday’s game against the Storm will be the third time Clark will play inside Climate Pledge Arena. She played two games here with Iowa during the 2023 NCAA Women’s Tournament, including a 41-point, 10-rebound, 12-assist triple-double in the regional final against Louisville that sent the Hawkeyes to the Final Four.

Clark said that trip to Seattle seemed to be the start of the latest surge in notoriety and attention that has followed women’s hoops.

“I think that’s kind of when the fandom of Iowa women’s basketball really started and you kind of started to see women’s basketball really take off,” Clark said. “I’d never been to Seattle in my life and then coming here we didn’t really know what to expect, we didn’t know how our fans would travel, we didn’t know really much. But just to see the support of women’s basketball, whether it was us playing, whether it was other teams playing, I think that was the biggest thing when I came here and noticed that.

“This arena was packed. There wasn’t a seat that was open coming here and I felt like that weekend was definitely a step forward for women’s basketball.”

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