The Indiana Fever, without their star guard Caitlin Clark, lost to the Los Angeles Sparks, courtesy of a clutch performance by Rickea Jackson. The final score was 89-87, with Jackson scoring the last four points for the Sparks.
Her stat line for the game was 15 points, five assists, and two rebounds. However, it was not all sunshine and rainbows for the 24-year-old forward.
Rickea Jackson Shares Funny 2-Word Response to Sydney Colson’s Block
With just three minutes left in the third quarter, Jackson got a chance to score an easy two-pointer from near the basket. If successful, she could’ve cut Fever’s lead to two as the scorecards read 58-62. As Jackson was about to jump, Fever’s Sydney Colson showed impressive reflexes to block the shot.
Although the referee called it a foul, Colson urged coach Stephanie White to challenge, which was successful. A fan on X, with username “@ShowCaseShabazz” shared a 30-second clip highlighting the block, captioning the post, “Syd blocked tf out RickeaðŸ˜ðŸ˜.” Jackson noticed the post and wrote, “Delete this” in the comments section.
Delete this
— RJ👑 (@iamthathooper) July 6, 2025
Azura Stevens, Dearica Hamby, and Kelsey Plum also chipped in with notable contributions for the Sparks, with Hamby and Plum scoring 18 and 20 points, respectively, and Stevens adding 21 points and 12 rebounds.
Sparks coach Lynne Roberts was impressed by her players’ performance in the comeback victory. She was particularly impressed with Mercedes Russel, who showcased stellar defense in the fourth quarter.
Russel played just eight minutes but secured an offensive rebound and was two for two from the field.
“Down the stretch when they needed to score, [Aliyah] Boston was being super aggressive and physical, just kind of lowering her shoulder, and Dearica also had five fouls. So we wanted to put, you know, somebody bigger on AB [Aliyah Boston], and I thought she did a tremendous job,” Roberts said.
“You know, not that Dearica couldn’t, but we couldn’t risk getting her fifth foul or sixth foul if it went to overtime or whatever. So, it was a defense-for-offense, and I thought Mercedes did a tremendous job,” she added.
Meanwhile, Fever’s coach, Stephanie White, praised Sparks’ Stevens and Jackson for the victory but also pointed out that they didn’t do a good enough job on defense.
“I thought they did a great job of exploiting matchups, you know, especially with Stevens and Jackson when they had smaller players on them. You know, making sure that their passes were on time, on target, recognizing it early. And we did not do a good enough job of getting them out of there as quickly as we’d like to,” White said.
Boston was the best performer for the Fever, scoring 23 points and notching up 12 rebounds. Natasha Howard scored 21 points with nine rebounds, while Kelsey Mitchell scored 19 points.
Fever will next face the Golden State Valkyries on Wednesday, while Sparks’ upcoming matchup is against the Lynx on Friday.
