How Indiana Fever picked up biggest win of the season vs. Liberty

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Fever got a signature win at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon, coming back from 11 points down in the fourth quarter to take down the league-leading New York Liberty, 83-78.

The Fever are now 9-13, while the Liberty are 17-4.

Here are three observations:

Fever get signature win

For over half the season, Indiana has been doing what it needed to do: beating the teams at the bottom of the standings. While the Fever picked up a win against Phoenix, their first against a .500 team, it was still one against a franchise that was in the middle of the pack.

On Saturday, 22 games into the season, Indiana got a signature win. The Fever handed New York, currently at the top of the standings, just its fourth loss of the season.

The Fever trailed, 75-68, with just under five minutes left in the game, and roared back with a 11-0 run to take a 79-75 lead. Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu made a 3-pointer to get within one point, but she missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer on the next possession. While the Liberty got the offensive rebound, the ball went over the halfcourt line. The Liberty lost possession on an over-and-back call, and free throws sealed the Fever victory.

This is the Fever’s first win over one of the top-three teams in the league. Indiana is 0-3 against Connecticut and 0-3 against Las Vegas.

Fever score:Indiana Fever beat WNBA’s best team, the New York Liberty, Caitlin Clark has triple-double

Fast start melts away

In the beginning, it didn’t look like the Fever, the eighth-place team in the WNBA, was playing the team at the top of the standings.

Indiana rushed out to a 7-0 lead behind back-to-back No. 1 picks Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark, then led 10-1 at the first media timeout. At one point in the first quarter, they led by 12 points, 24-12. The Fever’s offense was clicking on all cylinders: Boston and Clark were finding a rhythm and the team had a good pace and vision.

Then, that start slowly melted away.

New York went on a 6-0 run over the end of the first quarter to start cutting into the deficit, and Indiana, with substitutes in the game, suffered a 3:30 stretch where they didn’t score in the second quarter. A questionable out-of-bounds call on Kelsey Mitchell at the end of the first half gave New York an extra possession, which resulted in two free throws from Stewart to officially close the gap.

Caitlin Clark gets first career triple-double

Caitlin Clark is making more history.

With her 10th rebound in the fourth quarter, Clark officially hit double-figures in all three major categories with 15 points, 10 assists, and 10 rebounds.

The Fever rookie has gotten close to a triple-double before: she finished Indiana’s win against Phoenix with 15 points, nine rebounds, and 12 assists, but she couldn’t grab the final rebound as she left the game in the final seconds.

This time, she made sure it wasn’t left to chance.

Clark got off to a hot start, with 13 points, five rebounds, and seven assists by halftime. She got to the points-assists double-double mark by the end of the third quarter, and only needed three rebounds for a triple-double. She got those in the first four minutes of the first quarter.

It is the first triple-double by a WNBA rookie in league history and the first for the Fever franchise.

Clark had 17 triple-doubles in college, which was second to just Sabrina Ionescu (who was on the other side of the floor on Saturday afternoon). Ionescu did not record a triple-double in her rookie season in the WNBA, but has in subsequent seasons.