.jpg)
6 hours ago
1
Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark will soon be seeing each other again on the basketball court, as the 2025 WNBA season tips off Friday, May 16.
While it’s still too early to predict how their respective matchups will play out this season, the celebration of the basketball year beginning means we can now take a brief look back. Bueckers and Clark met two times during the course of their collegiate careers at UConn and Iowa, respectively, both of those occasions were interesting ones. The first meetup between the two stars occurred in the 2021 Sweet 16, which saw Bueckers’ UConn squad nabbing the win relatively easily.
Due to the height of the COVID pandemic at the time, the NCAA Tournament adapted a "bubble" format, which definitely made things a bit more challenging for everyone involved. Still, the locked-down "bubble" format with rigorous COVID testing was much better than the alternative—no basketball at all, and while things may have been difficult off the court, it was still game time whenever the players hit the floor. While Iowa lost 92-72, both Bueckers and Clark had standout performances, with Bueckers notching a near triple double with 18 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists, and Clark recording 21 points and 5 assists.
MORE: Caitlin Clark vs. Paige Bueckers stats: Comparing No. 1 picks entering the WNBA
The second meeting between the two in the 2024 Final Four was much closer, with a thrilling game that ended with Clark leading her team to a nail biting 71-69 victory. Bueckers and her UConn squad put up a heck of a fight though, with Bueckers, herself, scoring 17 points. It was Iowa, however, that got the win, with Clark scoring 21 points, including three timely 3-pointers in the second half that helped lead them to victory.
If Clark and Bueckers' future matchups are anything like that 2024 Final Four, then we’ll be in for lots of interesting matchups in the future, and I, for one, can’t wait.
MORE WNBA NEWS:
English (US)