Sophie Cunningham flagrant fouls Jacy Sheldon in apparent retaliation for dustup with Caitlin Clark, both ejected

Tensions continued to run high late in Tuesday’s game between the Indiana Fever and Connecticut Sun after an earlier altercation between Caitlin Clark and Marina Mabrey. The chippiness continued down to the final minute of the game, when Sophie Cunningham committed a flagrant foul against Jacy Sheldon with 46 seconds left.

As Sheldon drove toward the basket for a layup, Cunningham wrapped her arms around the Sun guard and appear to drag her toward the ground. Sheldon immediately hopped up off the floor and charged toward Cunningham, who looked to grab her hair as several other players got involved. You can view the moment below.

SOPHIE SAID AINT SHIT SWEET pic.twitter.com/vo9Mq2MFN3

— correlation (@nosyone4) June 18, 2025

Both players had to be separated and were ultimately ejected as a result of the play. Indiana would go on to win 88-71 after Indiana got a technical free throw and Connecticut made one of two flagrant free throws.

The altercation between Sophie Cunningham and Jacy Sheldon came after things started to get out of control in the third quarter. There, Clark was dribbling into the frontcourt, where she was defended by Sheldon. As Sheldon attempted to prevent entry into the lane, her arm accidentally shot forward and caught Clark in the face.

Immediately after the contact, Sheldon got into the chest of Caitlin Clark and bumped her, sending her toward another pocket of players. As Clark was holding her face and trying to talk to the refs, Mabrey came in and bumped her to the ground.

Clark, Mabrey and Tina Charles were all assessed technicals from the play while Sheldon received a Flagrant 1. Surprisingly, there were no ejections. Fever coach Stephanie White spoke postgame about the growing sense she had from early on in the game that something like this was about to happen, and called the officials out for not handling things sooner.

“I think it was pretty obvious that stuff was brewing,” she said. “When the officials don’t get control of the ball game, when they allowed that stuff to happen — and it’s been happening all season long, it’s not just this game — this is what happens. You’ve got competitive women who are the best in the world at what they do and when you allow them to play physical and you allow these things to happen, they’re gonna compete and they’re gonna have their teammates’ backs.

“It’s exactly what you expect out of fierce compeititon. I started talking to the officials in the first quarter and we knew this was gonna happen. You could tell it was gonna happen. Because they’ve gotta get control of it. They’ve gotta be better.”