INDIANAPOLIS -- Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers will share a backcourt at the FIBA World Cup next month in Berlin, making their long-anticipated debuts at a major international event for the U.S. senior national team. But Friday night in Indianapolis, the two No. 1 picks went blow for blow with dueling 29-point performances, as Clark's Indiana Fever used a big fourth quarter to best Bueckers' short-handed Dallas Wings 98-87.
Clark, a third-year guard out of Iowa, finished with her seventh game of at least 25 points and 10 assists this season, which is more than any player in league history has in their career. She holds the career record with 13 such games.
"She's like a maestro, the way that she really runs our offense," Fever coach Stephanie White said. "I think when we're at our best, she is instructing, she is running it much like a show, and it's tough to match up with us when she's commanding the floor like that."
Added Indiana guard Tyasha Harris: "I'm in awe watching CC play. Sometimes it's like, it's normal [what she's doing], and it's not."
Devastating Dallas off the drive for much of the game, Clark scored or assisted on 51% of the Fever's points. Bueckers, a second-year guard out of UConn who also finished with six assists and six rebounds, fared almost identically, scoring or assisting on 50% of the Wings' points.
The first half was relatively low scoring for two of the league's top offenses, with the Wings leading 37-35 at the break and the teams combining for 6-of-31 shooting from the 3-point arc. But Clark and Bueckers took over in the third quarter, trading buckets and eliciting cheers from their respective fanbases amid Gainbridge Fieldhouse's sellout crowd.
The two combined for 30 points on 11-for-15 shooting (3-for-5 from 3) in the third quarter.
"When you've got two great players that can create shots for themselves really easily, there are flows of the game where I think you're going to see that," White said. "We see it in the NBA all the time. I think that as players keep getting better, we're seeing it in the W as well. ... It was fun to watch for a little while. I just thought it was two great players making great plays."
It resulted in the sixth regular-season matchup in which former No. 1 picks posted dueling 25-point, five-assist performances. Clark and Bueckers each also shot better than 50% from the field.
"Paige is a tremendous player," Clark said. "She takes what the defense gives her. She doesn't force anything. She's smooth. She finds the open teammate. So she's just a really tough guard. ... With really good players, you've got to throw a lot of different things at them. They're going to make tough shots, and you live with some of them. Then I thought in the fourth quarter, we did a tremendous job of kind of taking her out of things."
That was when the Fever hit another gear on both ends, outscoring Dallas 35-21. In all, the Wings allowed 63 second-half points, which coach Jose Fernandez called "inexcusable."
Indiana also got the 18th straight 20-point game from guard Kelsey Mitchell, the longest single-season streak in WNBA history, along with a perfect 3-point shooting night from Harris off the bench (15 points). Aliyah Boston added a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double behind a big final frame.
The Wings have won just three of their past 10 games, though Friday night marked their second straight game without Jessica Shepard (ankle) and the fourth straight without Azzi Fudd (knee).
"In the fourth quarter, they just laid it on us," Bueckers said. "They played more physical, they wanted it more, and that's unacceptable as a team. We have to string together 40 minutes. We don't think being down people is an excuse."
Clark said she'd grade the Fever's performance a "B" but said it was notable that they still found a way to win by double figures against a solid team.
"We really kind of just pushed through and pushed through and pushed through," Clark said. "It felt like we were just like waiting for the moment to unleash, and I felt like that's what we kind of got in the fourth quarter."
Indiana (22-12) has won 10 of its past 13 games and sits in fourth place in the standings. The Wings (20-15) are in eighth place.
The teams meet again Thursday in Dallas in a rubber match.