In their preseason opener against the Washington Mystics on Saturday, the Indiana Fever squeaked out a 79-74 overtime win thanks to six free throws in the final minute of regulation. Caitlin Clark was absent for the first game of 2025 with a leg injury, but she did give it a go in the second game.
On Sunday, Clark and the Fever played in the second part of a back-to-back, facing the Brazil national women’s basketball team. But, instead of playing on a WNBA court, the game was played at Carver-Hawkeye Arena (CHA), home of the Iowa Hawkeyes. Iowa is Clark’s alma mater, where she broke the NCAA all-time scoring record.
Tickets for Clark’s return went on sale in January and sold out in just 42 minutes, setting the stage for another packed crowd, this time with 15,000 fans at CHA. The $650 average ticket price is the highest for any WNBA game since 2015.
Still, this marks a historic step for Clark and the league, becoming the first-ever WNBA game at CHA. Not only that, but Fever vs. Brazil, broadcast on ESPN, also marked one of the four WNBA preseason games to be nationally televised this year, another record.
And sure enough, roughly 30 seconds into the game, Clark scored the first WNBA points at CHA, a pull-up 3-pointer from the top of the arc.
The game at CHA is also just one of four WNBA preseason games to be played on a college campus, also a league record. The first two came on Friday, when the Aces faced the Wings at Purcell Pavilion (Notre Dame) before Angel Reese returned to Pete Maravich Assembly Center (LSU) to face Brazil.
The final on-campus WNBA game of the preseason will be on Monday, May 12, when the New York Liberty face Japan’s Toyota Antelopes at Matthew Knight Arena (Oregon), where Sabrina Ionescu played college basketball.
Clark and the Fever will play their final preseason game of 2025 on Saturday, facing the Atlanta Dream on the road. They will open up the regular season on May 17, hosting the Chicago Sky”.
