INDIANAPOLIS – Aliyah Boston couldn’t believe what she heard in the postgame news conference. That she was the one to pick up a technical foul in the Indiana Fever’s first game of the season.

“Wait, AB got the foul?” Boston interjected into a question about her technical. “I got the tech? Oh no.” She put her hands on her head in surprise, then her head in her hands.

Boston got a “physical taunt technical foul,” crew chief Roy Gulbeyan told IndyStar in a pool report, after breaking up an altercation between teammate Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese in the third quarter. Reese got a “verbal technical” in the same sequence, and the two offset.

Aliyah Boston didn’t know she was the person that got a technical foul.

When asked about it, she went “wait, I got the tech??”

CC comments on her flagrant as well: pic.twitter.com/fyp0QfZ0AS

— Chloe Peterson (@chloepeterson67) May 17, 2025

“I appreciate AB having my back,” Clark said with a smile. “I guess I don’t know what she did, I didn’t see that, but have fun paying that fine.”

“Can I get half?” Boston asked in response, referring to a $200 fine for the first technical foul of the season.

“I got you,” Clark responded.

Both of those technicals stemmed from what became a flagrant foul Clark committed on Reese under Chicago’s basket in the third quarter.

Clark attempted to commit a take foul as Angel Reese was driving to the basket; she wrapped her arms around Reese’s back and stomach, which led Reese to stumble to the ground. Reese immediately leaped up and started talking back at Clark, and Boston got in the middle of them to both hold Reese back and push Clark away from the scrum.

Clark walked away, back toward the Fever’s bench, and Reese continued to talk at her while her teammates and coaching staff were holding her back.

The foul on Clark was upgraded to a flagrant 1 after review, and Boston and Reese’s technical fouls offset.

“The foul on Clark met the criteria for a flagrant foul 1 for windup, impact, and follow through for the extension of the left hand into Reese’s back, which is deemed not a legitimate basketball play and therefore deemed unnecessary contact,” Gulbeyan said.

The Fever star saw it as a routine basketball play — a traditional take foul where she was aiming to give up two free throws (Reese shot 73.6% from the line last season) instead of an open layup.

“Let’s not make it anything that it’s not,” Clark said. “It was just a good play on the basketball. I’m not sure what the refs saw to upgrade it, but that’s up to their discretion after watching the initial whatever happened during the play, and then whatever happened after. If you watch a lot of basketball, it’s a take foul to put them at the free throw line or rather give up two points. I’ve watched a lot of basketball in my life, that’s exactly what it was. I wasn’t trying to do anything malicious, that’s not the type of player I am.

“I went for the ball, and that’s clear as day on the replay, you watch it. It shouldn’t have been upgraded, but again, it’s up to the ref’s discretion.”

Fever coach Stephanie White, who agreed it should not have been upgraded, said it was a result of Indiana wanting to up its defensive ability this season. That was evident in the Fever’s first game of the season — they held the Sky to 58 points on 29.1% shooting and racked up six steals. Clark herself had four blocks, which tied a career-high

“Nobody is going to get anything easy from us,” White said postgame. “We’re going to be a tough defensive team. I thought it was a clear play on the ball as well.”

Reese took to the free-throw line to take the flagrant foul shots, boos raining down from Fever fans. Those boos turned to cheers as Reese missed her first shot, but she made her second and Chicago got the ball back. 

In the end, though, the free throws didn’t matter much — Indiana led by 20 at the end of the third quarter, then won the game by 35 points.

“Basketball play,” Reese said postgame. “Refs got it right. Move on.”

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: What Caitlin Clark said about flagrant foul call on Angel Reese