By Gus "Walk-Off" Fields
Friday night had the feel of a heavyweight card, and for a while nobody could tell you who was ahead on the cards.
Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers spent the evening trading buckets like two boxers who refused to take a step back, each finishing with 29 points. When the final horn sounded, it was Clark's Fever on top, 98-87, over Bueckers' Wings — a Dallas team that took the floor shorthanded but didn't play like it.
The two have been measured against each other since their college days, when Clark's Iowa and Bueckers' UConn seemed to collide every March. That storyline hasn't faded with the move to the pros; if anything, Friday's shootout added another chapter fans will point to when the debate starts up again over coffee or on a barstool.
What the box score can't fully capture is the rhythm of it — a three from Clark answered possessions later by a Bueckers drive, the crowd rising and falling with every exchange. Dallas being down bodies makes the final margin easy to explain, but it doesn't erase what Bueckers did with what she had.
For Indiana, the win keeps the Fever rolling behind their point guard's now-familiar brand of long-range fireworks. For Dallas, there's a silver lining in a losing effort: their best player answered the moment, shorthanded roster or not.
No box seats needed here — this was appointment viewing, and it delivered.
— Compiled from reporting by ESPN.
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