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Despite the Indiana Fever suffering a 92-91 loss to the Washington Mystics on Thursday night, standout Fever rookie Caitlin Clark was part of history once again.
An official count of 20,711 fans showed up at the Capital One Arena to watch the game, representing a new record for the highest-attended WNBA regular-season contest.
Clark finished with eight points and eight assists in 20 minutes against Washington, shooting 2-5 from the field which included two three-pointers.
She sat for most of the second half, as Indiana previously clinched a playoff spot on Sept. 4. With a record of 20-19 entering the team’s final matchup of the regular season, the Fever were already locked into the No. 6 seed before the game started.
Thursday night’s contest broke the previous regular-season record of 20,674, which was reached four times by Washington during the 1998 and 1999 seasons (via Across the Timeline).
The Mystics typically play at Entertainment & Sports Arena, which has a capacity of 4,200. However, the game was moved to Capital One Arena in anticipation of the large crowds that Clark typically draws.
Washington isn’t the only team to transition to a larger arena ahead of contests against Indiana, as the Las Vegas Aces hosted the Fever at the larger T-Mobile Arena for a July 2 game instead of playing in the relatively smaller Michelob ULTRA Arena. 20,366 fans attended the matchup, which represented the highest regular-season single-game attendance since 1999.
Fans have also flocked to watch the Fever at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse, with Indiana setting a new WNBA home attendance record during the 2024 season.
After an impressive college career at Iowa, Clark has taken the WNBA by storm and appears to be in line to win the Rookie of the Year award. She’s averaging 19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 8.4 assists per game on 41.7/34.4/90.6 shooting splits.
First appeared on bleacherreport.com