Indiana Fever have dynamic duo with Caitlin Clark and Princeton alum Kelsey Mitchell

The Indiana Fever‘s Caitlin Clark has broken another WNBA scoring record, but she gives a lot of credit to her teammate, Princeton High School graduate Kelsey Mitchell.

The most prolific scorer in NCAA basketball history is now the most prolific rookie scorer in WNBA history. Clark scored a career-high 35 points in the Indiana Fever’s final home game of the year to push her season point total to 761. She still has another game to extend her lead on Seimone Augustus, who set the record 18 years ago with the Minnesota Lynx.

“She makes my life easier out there and it’s hard to pick and choose when both of us are on,” Clark said of Mitchell Sunday after Clark’s record-breaking game.

The only player on the Indiana Fever who has scored more than Clark so far this season is Cincinnati’s Mitchell. Mitchell has scored 763 points in 2024, ahead of Clark by two points. The Fever‘s final game of the regular season, Thursday at 7 p.m. against the Washington Mystics, will decide who finishes as the team’s leading scorer in 2024.

“I just think we really read and understand each other a lot better from where we were at the beginning of the season,” Clark said after the Sept. 15 game. “The amount of back-door cuts that girl has got just because we make eye contact and she knows to go back door, it’s incredible. Like that play we ran to start the third quarter, I wasn’t involved in it. I was at the beginning, but we run that play a million times. It just made me laugh. She’s so fast that she gets open every single time. I’m really happy for her and proud of her; she definitely deserves this moment.”

Kelsey Mitchell: Princeton High to Ohio State to Indiana Fever

After graduating from Princeton, Mitchell starred at Ohio State from 2014 to 2018, earning AP All-American honors all four years of college. After graduating, the Fever selected her second overall in the WNBA 2018 draft, behind only two-time WNBA MVP A’Ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces. The 28-year-old Mitchell has been a WNBA All-Star twice, in 2023 and 2024.

The rookie scoring record isn’t the only one that Clark has set so far this season. She dished out the most assists by any player in a single WNBA game on July 17 with 19 against the Dallas Wings. She earned the first triple-double by a WNBA rookie on July 6 against the New York Liberty, going for 19 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists. Clark has also set the mark for most 3-pointers in a season by a WNBA rookie (120 so far, smashing the previous mark of 88) and tied the rookie record for most 3-pointers in a game with seven. She also currently leads the WNBA in assists per game

The Fever are 20-19, and they have clinched a playoff berth. The team hasn’t made the playoffs since 2016.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Will Caitlin Clark or Kelsey Mitchell end up as Fever’s top scorer?