Fever’s Sophie Cunningham pokes fun at ejection following late-game foul, skirmish with Sun’s Jacy Sheldon

The tensions that flared between the Indiana Fever and Connecticut Sun earlier in the week have subsided, but the jokes have kept coming. Fever guard Sophie Cunningham was a part a late-game skirmish after delivering a hard foul on Connecticut’s Jacy Sheldon with less than a minute to play. Sheldon immediately went after Cunningham, resulting in double ejections, and Cunningham was fined. 

This, after Fever star Caitlin Clark was decked by Sun guard Marina Mabrey in the third quarter, resulting in a flagrant foul and another heated moment. 

Prior to the following game against the Golden State Valkyries, Cunningham posted a tongue-and-cheek video lip-syncing “Hands to Myself” by Selena Gomez.

“It’s a joke … the sound was too fitting! happy game day,” Cunningham captioned. 

“I did not understand. When you are winning the game by 17 points and you are doing this, to me, stupid foul,” Sun coach Rachid Meziane said after the 88-71 loss, “this is just disrespectful and I do not know how Lindsey (Allen) and Jacy get ejected from the game when they did nothing.

“For me, it’s just disrespectful to do that foul when you’re winning the game by 17 points. Completely stupid.”

Fever coach Stephanie White did not hold back on the officials. 

“I think that it was pretty obvious that stuff was brewing when officials don’t get control of the ball game, when they allow that stuff to happen,” White said. “And it’s been happening all season long. It’s not just this game, it’s been happening all season long.

“When you allow them to play physical and you allow these things to happen, they’re gonna compete,” she continued. “And they’re gonna have their teammates’ backs. It’s exactly what you expect out of fierce competition. I started talking to the officials in the first quarter, and we knew this was gonna happen. You could tell it was gonna happen. They gotta get control of it, they gotta be better.”

Cunningham has played in seven games this season and is averaging 6.4 points and 4.3 rebounds per contest.