WNBA Upgrades Marina Mabrey’s Foul on Caitlin Clark to Flagrant-2 Amid Rising Tensions
The WNBA has officially upgraded the technical foul assessed to Connecticut Sun guard Marina Mabrey for her physical encounter with Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark during their recent game. The league has reclassified the incident, where Mabrey shoved Clark to the floor, to a Flagrant-2 foul.
The decision, reported Wednesday via an Associated Press source familiar with the situation, comes after the game on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, which saw multiple scuffles and heated moments. A Flagrant-2 foul is a more serious penalty than a technical foul and automatically results in a fine for the player involved.
Details of the Altercation
The play prompting the upgrade occurred in the third quarter and was highlighted as a significant point of contention within a game marked by building tension. The sequence reportedly began when Connecticut’s Jacy Sheldon poked Caitlin Clark in the eye while defending her. Clark responded by pushing Sheldon away. It was then that Mabrey intervened, forcefully pushing Clark, causing the star guard to fall to the ground. Both Clark and Fever teammate Tina Charles also received technical fouls during this particular skirmish.
Initially, the foul on Mabrey was called a technical. According to a pool report following the game, official Ashley Gloss did not believe Mabrey’s contact met the criteria for a Flagrant-2 or an ejection at that time – a view that clearly differed from the league’s subsequent review.
Additional Penalties Issued
Beyond the upgrade to Mabrey’s foul, the WNBA also issued a fine to Indiana Fever forward Sophie Cunningham. Cunningham was fined for her role in a separate on-court melee that erupted late in the fourth quarter after she committed a foul on Jacy Sheldon. Cunningham had already been assessed a Flagrant-2 foul on the court during this incident.
The league source indicated that, following these actions, no further penalties would be imposed for on-court conduct during that specific game. The WNBA maintains its policy of not publicly disclosing the monetary amounts of player fines.
Context: Game Tensions and Officiating Criticism
Both the Mabrey-Clark incident and the later confrontation involving Cunningham were seen as the culmination of escalating tensions throughout the game. Players and coaches from both sides voiced frustrations after the contest, suggesting that a lack of consistent calls and overall poor game management by the officials contributed significantly to the heated atmosphere and the late-game skirmish.
Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White was particularly critical of the officiating, describing “bad officiating” as a pervasive issue across the entire WNBA, not limited to this single game. She was quoted stating that “everybody (in the WNBA) is getting better, except the officials,” adding that she had anticipated trouble early in the game. White stressed that officials need to “get control of it” and “be better” to prevent such physical altercations and maintain the integrity of play.
The incident and subsequent league actions raise important questions about the consistency of officiating standards in the WNBA and how the league can better manage games to prevent on-court escalations as intensity rises.
