Last Tuesday night's game between the Indiana Fever and Connecticut Sun became scrappy early on as Caitlin Clark went up against long-time rival Jacy Sheldon, who has been a rival of Clark's since their Big Ten days at Iowa and Ohio State.

Clark and Sheldon got chippy during the first half of the game, but that dispute was quickly settled. Later in the third quarter, Sheldon struck Clark's face while trying to guard her, and the tension began to broil over between the two players. As the two teams came in to confront each other, Sun's Marina Mabrey shoved Clark to the ground. Clark, Mabrey, and Tina Charles were all assessed technical fouls, and Sheldon was given a Flagrant 1 foul.

Toward the end of the game, Fever guard Sophie Cunningham decided to retaliate against Sheldon. As Sheldon tried driving for a basket, Cunningham ended up taking her to the ground on a hard foul. Cunningham was ejected from the game and later fined.

On Saturday, Cunningham explained why she took down Sheldon late in the game, explaining that since the officials have not done a good enough job protecting the league's star player, she stepped in.

“I'm not focused on the extracurricular activities," Cunningham told reporters on Saturday. "During that, it was just part of the game. I think the refs had a lot to do with that. It was a build up for a couple years now of them just not, not protecting the star player of the WNBA. And so at the end of the day, I’m going to protect my teammates, that’s what I do and I'm a team player.”

Fever coach Stephanie White also called out the officials for letting things get out of hand following the Fever's win over the Sun.

"You could tell this was going to happen," White said after the game. "So, [the officials] got to get control of it, they got to be better."

"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," White said. "And they're going to have their teammate's backs."

Sun coach Rachid Meziane, on the other hand, felt Cunningham's foul was "completely stupid" since the Fever were leading by double digits very late into the game when it happened.

"For me, it's just disrespectful to do that foul when you're winning the game by 17 points," Meziane said. "Completely stupid."

After a heated matchup between the two teams, the Fever and Sun will face of again next month on July 15.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Sophie Cunningham Blamed WNBA Refs for Forcing Her to Protect Caitlin Clark.

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