Angel Reese whacks Caitlin Clark in head for Flagrant-1 foul, and WNBA refs got it right

Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese entered the WNBA has household names after their electric rivalry in women’s college basketball. Reese’s LSU team beat Clark’s Iowa team in the 2023 national championship game when both players were juniors. They met again in the Sweet 16 as seniors, and Clark and the Hawkeyes got revenge by ending LSU’s season.

Clark was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft to the Indiana Fever. Reese went No. 7 overall to the Chicago Sky. There’s already a budding rivalry between their pro teams after Chicago’s Chennedy Carter hip-checked Clark earlier this season in a play that started a nauseating amount of national discourse. Part of the problem with that play was the refs ruled Carter’s cheap shot as a common foul — until the league changed it to a Flagrant foul the next day.

As the Sky and Fever met again on Sunday in a nationally broadcast game on CBS, Clark was again hit with a hard foul, but this time the refs got the call right. As Clark was driving to the basket, Reese went for the block and hit her hard in the head. The officials called for a review and determined it was a Flagrant-1 foul, meaning Clark got two free throws and then Indiana got the ball. Watch the play here:

This isn’t a dirty play or intentional cheap shot. Clark went for the layup, Reese tried to recover for the block, and while going for the ball she whacked Clark in the head.

Clark looked just fine after the sequence, scoring nine points in the last five minutes of the third quarter. Hopefully she’s okay because hard hits to the head are nothing to play around with.

The Angel Reese vs. Caitlin Clark rivalry will keep going strong in the WNBA. It’s must-see TV every time these two players matchup.