DiJonai Carrington mentioned she didn’t go all WWE and deliberately poke Caitlin Clark within the eye Sunday.
The Solar guard appeared perturbed with that narrative after being requested earlier than Wednesday’s Sport 2 whether or not she had purposefully poked the Fever’s rookie star throughout Connecticut’s 93-69 win.
Clark fell to her knees whereas grabbing her eye after being hit and later had a black eye, though Carrington didn’t obtain a foul on the play.
“I don’t even know why I might intend to hit anyone within the eye. That doesn’t even make sense to me,” Carrington mentioned throughout a shoot-around Tuesday. “However no, I didn’t. I didn’t know I hit her really. I used to be making an attempt to make a play on the ball and I suppose I adopted by and I hit her, so clearly it’s by no means intentional, that’s not even like the kind of participant that I’m.”
There was some hypothesis over the previous few days relating to the intent of Carrington’s play and whether or not there might have been any soiled intentions behind it.
The play occurred early within the first quarter of the eventual blowout Solar win when Carrington went to defend a go from Clark however hit her within the eye in her follow-through.
One of many narratives from earlier within the season centered round how opponents have been somewhat bodily with Clark this season.
Clark didn’t play nicely after that blow, scoring simply 11 factors on 4-of-17 capturing, together with 2-of-13 from past the arc.
When a reporter adopted up asking whether or not Carrington and teammate Marina Mabrey had been probably laughing concerning the scenario later within the recreation, she once more shut down the premise.
“No,” Carrington mentioned. “I simply instructed you I didn’t know I hit her, so I can’t snort about one thing I didn’t know occurred.”
Clark additionally dismissed the thought of Carrington purposefully trying to probably injure her.
“It wasn’t intentional by any means,” Clark mentioned Tuesday whereas laughing. “You simply watched the play. It wasn’t intentional.”
Clark and the Fever now must win Wednesday in Uncasville, Conn., to avoid wasting their season and power a win-or-go-home Sport 3 on Friday night time.
The Solar are six-point favorites at DraftKings.
