Professional basketball didn’t go the way either Indiana team wanted it last night. The regular-season debut of former Iowa women’s college superstar Caitlin Clark saw the WNBA Fever losing to the Connecticut Sun, 92-71. Caitlin scored 20 points in her first official pro game, but also committed 10 turnovers.
In the NBA post-season, the Pacers and New York Knicks have alternated looking unstoppable, then pathetic. It’s happened to both teams, and last night, the Pacers looked nothing like the Knicks-decimating machine they were Sunday, getting blasted themselves by New York in Madison Square Garden, 121-91. It seemed to Indiana the Knicks got every break, and they cruised to the win, led by Jalen Brunson’s 44 points. So now New York’s up 3 games to 2, and could end the Indiana season in Game 6 Friday.
Things were better on the diamond, where the Reds grabbed an early lead over the Diamondbacks in Arizona. On the mound, Cincinnati’s Hunter Greene retired the first 6 batters he faced, to set the tone. He went 7 innings, allowing the Snakes only 5 hits, 2 earned runs and just a single walk, for his second win of the season, the final 6-2 Reds. Offensively, Jeimer Candelario racked up a couple base hits that helped, Tyler Stephenson had 3 hits in the game, and in the 5th inning, Will Benson really got hold of a ball, driving it to right-center field and out of the park for a 2-run homer, his 5th dinger of the season. Today, the Diamondbacks series closes out, with the broadcast coming to you at 3:10 this afternoon, on the Sports Voice, 103.9 FM, WRBI.
It was a rainy Tuesday afternoon around here, so most high school softball and baseball games didn’t get played. North Decatur was one of only a couple schools to let everyone know its games were postponed due to the wetness– baseball against South Decatur to today, and softball versus the Cougars to tomorrow, both to start at 5:30. Also moved was Batesville-Rushville baseball, so those teams will play 2 on Friday. A couple games did get in Tuesday though– Greensburg softball shut out Lawrenceburg 4 to nothing, a South Ripley softball game continued from the 6th went to the Raiders 6 to 4 over Jac-Cen-Del, and South Ripley baseball beat the Eagles in their scheduled game, 4-3. And also postponed for the Tuesday weather– sectional girls’ track at East Central. That meet’s been reset for today.