When Caitlin Clark’s frustration got the best of her during Sunday’s game against the Seattle Storm, a referee not only blew the whistle but found her reaction was a disgrace to the game. 

Despite the Indiana Fever holding the lead in the third quarter, Clark struggled to get her shots in. To add salt to the wound, a harmless gesture to let out some steam led to referee Tyler Ricks giving the rookie a technical foul and fans a reason to scratch their heads.

Nevertheless, the Fever secured a 92-75 win at home. As for Clark, she had a seemingly sarcastic response when asked about the call postgame.

‘I got a technical for basically being mad at myself because I missed a three,’ Clark said.

‘And then I went and hit the backboard, and he told me it was disrespectful to the game of basketball.’

Caitlin Clark was told she was ‘disrespectful to the game’ by a referee during Sunday’s game

Clark had only eight points on the board when she pulled up for a 29-foot three-point jump shot with 7:14 remaining in the third. As her shot bounced off the backboard, the rookie’s emotions poured on the court.

Frustrated, Clark delivered a hard right hammer fist to the stanchion. However, her human reaction and competitive nature had a negative connotation in Ricks’ eyes.

‘It reminded me of the technical I got in college, where I said “damn it,” where it’s like a personal frustration,’ Clark added. ‘[It] Had nothing to do with my team, had nothing to do with the reffing, had nothing to do with the other team. It’s just because I’m a competitor.

‘But I think he fired me up to continue to play a lot harder,’ she added. ‘I thought we got a lot better after that. I want to thank him for that.

‘But overall, I thought once we got to that media timeout around five minutes in the third quarter, I thought we all kind of took a breath. It was all chaos there for two and a half minutes.’

Official Tyler Ricks gave Clark a technical foul for hitting the stanchion after missing a three

Clark struggled for most of the game, her reaction came from missing a 29-foot jump shot

The rookie found her rhythm later and finished the game with 23 points to help the Fever win

While her tone came with a hint of sarcasm, her remarks were factual as she found her rhythm late to score 23 points, making 9-of-19 from the field and 3-of-10 from three. Furthermore, she recorded five boards and broke the WNBA record for most assists by a rookie.

Clark – who came into the game with 223 assists this season – added nine more to her tally and shattered the record with 12 games left before the playoffs.

The previous record was held by Ticha Penicheiro – who served up 225 assists in 1998 with the Sacramento Monarchs.

Flirting with a triple-double, Clark would have had at least ten assists if not for a terrible miss by Mitchell on an open layup in the first quarter.

Nevertheless, Mitchell made up for the miss by scoring a game-high 27 points to help Indiana improve to 13-15 this season.

Clark shattered the WNBA record for most assists by a rookie in Indiana’s win over Seattle

Clark broke the record previously held by Ticha Penicheiro with her 225th assist of the season

The Fever have won their last two games and will hit the road against the Minnesota Lynx and Atlanta Dream on the 24th and 26th of August.

Indiana sits seventh in the league and third in the Eastern Conference.

‘I think I could have done a better job of regaining my cool but that’s like the fire and passion that just gets me going,’ Clark continued. ‘Its just finding a way to channel that, use that, and I think I did a real good job of that at the end of the third quarter, start of the fourth quarter.’

Clark now has five technical fouls this season – making her two T’s away from an automatic one-game suspension.