Caitlin Clark, Stephanie White Echo Each Other on 'Tough' Part of Fever's Dream Loss

Caitlin Clark and Stephanie White both spoke about a "tough" aspect of the Indiana Fever's first loss of the 2025 season.

May 17, 2025; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) in the second half against the Chicago Sky at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images | Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

While the Indiana Fever played far from a perfect game in their 91-90 loss to the Atlanta Dream on May 20, the referees didn't do them any favors, especially in the first half.

Fever head coach Stephanie White had to challenge two out-of-bounds calls in the first half, both of which were ultimately overturned to give the Fever possession. However, this led to White not having any more challenges in the second half, not to mention the first challenge took several minutes to get right, which interrupted the game's rhythm.

Both White and star guard Caitlin Clark addressed this frustrating aspect of Tuesday's game when speaking with the media after the contest.

"I mean, it's tough. It's every coach's frustration when you have to use challenges on out of bounds plays," White said, per Scott Agness' YouTube account. "But for teams to win three challenges in the first half, I don't know if I've ever seen that, either. It's tough."

When Clark was asked about this, she said, "I mean, to me, challenges cannot take that long. It ruins the flow of the game... We can't sit there for two and a half, three minutes on an obvious hit out of bounds off of them, and still not know the call. That's not the only reason the flow of the game was ruined, but we're just standing there, and we're waiting, and we're waiting, and we're waiting.

"It's tough when Coach White is put in a position to have to use both her challenges in the first half on calls that were pretty point blank, and then we're left with none there in the second half," Clark continued.

To be fair, both White and Clark made sure to note that these referee blunders weren't the main reason why the Fever came up short on Tuesday. But they certainly didn't help.