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Angel Reese is on the board when it comes to WNBA wins in head-to-head showdowns with Caitlin Clark.

Reese was brilliant in Sunday’s contest and led her Chicago Sky to an 88-87 victory over Clark’s Indiana Fever. She was then asked about any potential budding rivalry between the two rookies on the ESPN broadcast after the contest and redirected attention to the team win.

“It’s just good competition,” Reese said. “I’m happy. I mean, they still got us. They got one up on us, so I’m just happy for the team. I don’t wanna make it about us. I just want our team….Chicago, they came out tonight, so I’m just happy for us.”

Clark still has bragging rights considering her Fever won the first two WNBA games between the rookies, but the fourth and final contest pitting them against each other is also in Chicago on Aug. 30.

Thus far, the home team has won all three of the matchups.

Reese turned in one of her best individual performances of her young WNBA career in Sunday’s matchup with 25 points and 16 rebounds on 8-of-12 shooting from the field. She was both the on-court leader for her team in terms of production and its emotional leader in terms of the energy she brought at critical moments.

Indiana led by as many as 12 in the fourth quarter, but Reese overpowered the visitors’ frontcourt on a number of occasions and created transition opportunities by running the floor as the Sky completed the comeback.

Her most important play of the game came in the final minute when she scored on the low blocks to break the tie and put Chicago ahead for good.

The Fever still had an opportunity to win it at the end, but Aliyah Boston was unable to connect from the top of the key.

At this point, everyone who even casually follows basketball knows the dynamic and backstory between Clark and Reese. They faced each other in the 2023 national championship game and again in the Elite Eight this past season.

Reese’s LSU Tigers won the first matchup, but Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes earned some revenge in the second.

There was plenty of trash talk, as is often the case between competitors in such important moments, and there could be a budding rivalry in the WNBA as well with the Sky and Fever engaging in entertaining and physical battles.

While there were no headlines from that physical play in Sunday’s game, there were in the first two. Reese committed a flagrant foul on Clark in the second matchup, while Chennedy Carter turned heads by knocking the Fever guard to the ground with an unnecessary foul that was eventually upgraded to a flagrant foul in the first.

Yet Reese and Clark have both said there is no bad blood between them, and the former was more focused on the win than anything else on Sunday.