The decibels in Gainbridge Fieldhouse Sunday as Lexie Hull threw down six three-pointers probably approached the sound level of being locked in a closet with Metallica.

Normally, Hull, a third-year guard for the Indiana Fever, doesn’t even take six shots in WNBA games, never mind make that many threes from 812, or another area code.

She not only drove the sellout 17,274 crowd into a frenzy as the Fever bested the Seattle Storm, 92-75, her accuracy prompted guard Caitlin Clark to say she was turning one of her social media sites into a Lexie Hull fan page.

“Giddy” was the watchword as the Fever won its second straight game – after beating the Phoenix Mercury, 98-89, Friday – in the first games following the Summer Olympics break.

Between April, when the Fever made NCAA record-setter Clark the first pick in the league draft, and August, when the team inched closer to a .500 record and a playoff spot, the Fever have practically developed a cult following.

And with her play, setting new marks as a rookie, and her demeanor, with gentle words for kids, accessibility with autographs, and a sense of responsibility to the game, Clark has morphed into a sports hero worshipped as few before her – and none in women’s basketball.

Clark told a story the other day about how her mother, Anne Nizzi-Clark, bumped into a young female fan at an airport headed to her first Fever game. Mom gave her the gift of a Caitlin trading card and the girl broke down in tears. Then mom arranged for Clark to meet the youngster post-game.

“It puts into perspective how special these moments are for people – whether they meet you or not,” Clark said. “Getting to enjoy the environment of the game is what really makes lifelong memories for them.”

Of their first 28 games, the Fever (home and away) have sold out 25 times. More spectators have watched the Fever than any team in a single season in WNBA history – with 12 games remaining.

The demand to see the Fever means 38 of 40 Indiana games will be aired by ABC, CBS, ESPN, ESPN 2, ION, NBA TV and more. An assessment calculated at the Olympic break during the Paris Summer Games, showed home attendance was up 265 percent from 2023, the team 1.3 million more social media followers since April than a year ago, and saw increases of more than 1,000 percent in team store sales and in jersey sales over 2023.

That was before Caitlin Clark moved from Iowa to Indiana. In 2023, the Fever finished 13-27, missed the playoffs and earned the No. 1 WNBA draft pick, taking the 6-foot Clark with the aim of reinvigorating the franchise.

The 22-year-old who scored 3,951 points, eclipsing the record for most points by a man or woman in NCAA play, while leading Iowa to the NCAA championship game twice, is living up to the considerable hype that trailed her.

As legions of little girls, especially, but also boys, display “No. 22” Fever, and Iowa U. basketball jerseys, Clark has averaged 17.8 points and 8.3 assists per game. Against Phoenix, Clark scored 29 points and totaled 10 assists, her 10th double-double. Against Seattle, Clark scored 23 points, with 9 assists.

At times her passing has electrified crowds and during the Seattle win Clark broke the club record of most three-pointers in a season by a rookie with 78, previously held by team legend Tamika Catching. Plus, she set the WNBA record of most assists by a rookie with 224, set by Ticho Penicheiro in 1998 for the defunct Sacramento Monarchs. Clark currently leads the WNBA in assists average.

“It’s definitely cool,” Clark said of claiming the record, but said she is surprised to be first in the league, and if told that pre-season “I probably would have told you, you were lying.”

Clark uplifts Fever

This is the Fever’s 25th anniversary and it has been an up-and-down journey. Indiana did not receive a franchise when the WNBA formed and played its first season in 1997.

The Fever has won one title, in 2012, and the all-time team star is Catchings, a 10-time All-Star, selected for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. But the Fever has not made the playoffs since 2016 and Clark is now the second straight top pick after the Fever took center Alijah Boston out of South Carolina in 2023.

One person who has viewed it all is Seymour’s Donna Sullivan, who has owned Fever season tickets from the start. Sullivan, the long-time Owls girls head coach, is currently serving as the first woman president of the Indiana High School Basketball Hall of Fame.

“The day they said they were going to have a team in Indianapolis, I called and got on the list,” Sullivan said.

She is astonished at the rabid nature of the fans and how the arena keeps selling out.

“They just keep coming,” Sullivan said. “At the beginning of the season, I thought it was going to run out.” Sullivan believes Clark has reached almost cult-like status, and there is no question the phrase “The Caitlin Clark Effect” is accurate.

“They can say what they want, but she’s the reason,” Sullivan said.

It is not merely Clark’s on-court play, her long-range shooting and setting up teammates, but the way she handles the media, works with fans, and gives attention to young people that uplifts her popularity, Sullivan thinks.

“You just shake your head,” Sullivan said. “She gives them the role model they would like to be. He (Michael Jordan) is probably the closest thing.” More than once, Sullivan said, she has heard Clark described “22 going on 50” and she feels “That is about right.”

Weak start

The Fever began the season in a shaky manner in May. The young team started 1-8 and endured a schedule of 11 games in 20 games after a short training camp.

Gradually, the eventual starting lineup of Clark, Boston, Kelsey Mitchell, NaLyssa Smith and Katie Lou Samuelson began clicking and improving. The WNBA All-Stars, including Clark, Boston and Mitchell, defeated the U.S. Olympic team, 117-109.

Except for guard Kristy Wallace, who won a bronze medal playing for Australia, Indiana went on intermission as Team USA blitzed the rest of the world in six straight games in Paris to win gold. Fever players did such things as vacation in Mexico, visit family elsewhere, and participate in off-court activities. Some players dedicated a court on the State Fair Grounds, some players fed milk to baby goats at the Fair, and they played home-run derby in the gym with a plastic bat and ball.

Boston said of course Clark’s team won – she is known for being competitively fiery, including taking half-court shots, and probably checkers. Clark is from a family of athletes, her mother, father Brent, and brothers played various sports. Recently, younger brother Colin recounted an instance of playing one-on-one hoops with Clark as youngsters.

“There was a loose ball and she ended up shoving me in the corner of the basement into the wall,” Colin Clark said. “Split my head open. Got four staples.”

Some other events during the break were not quite so serious. Clark dropped in on the New York Yankees and met star Aaron Judge, who at 6-7 and 280 pounds is larger than the centers in the WNBA. Clark, who said he is “swole,” which the world took to mean big.

For the second year, Clark was featured as a butter sculpture at the Iowa State Fair, in an Iowa uniform dribbling. The hometown girl, from Des Moines, knows the highly respected tradition featuring a cow sculpture dating back to 1911. Only later, did people infringe on the mooing. Clark, who has now twice been a butter sculpture, joined Kurt Warner and Jack Trice, the University of Iowa’s first Black athlete, as athletes enshrined in butter.

“That was a very historic Iowa thing,” Clark said.

Second half charge?

Play time ended for the Fever last Friday when play resumed for real. Indiana was given up for dead after the slow start. During this gradual re-build, making the playoffs has always been the goal.

Phoenix came to town with three Team USA gold medalists, Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, and Kahleah Copper. The Fever stunned onlookers by bursting to a 48-20 lead. Only in the second half, they gave the margin all the way back and trailed, 62-61, before rallying from threat of a doomsday defeat.

“You know they’re not going to go away,” Clark said. It was important to hang on. “There are times this year we’ve kind of crumbled.”

Mitchell was en fuego, with 28 points and nearly got in a physical battle.

“It got a little gritty and dirty,” Mitchell said.

Seventh, with eight teams making the playoffs, the Fever wants to hang onto that status. They needed the fan energy and noise against Seattle for three quarters.

Those crafted signs let the Fever know where hearts lay. Supporters who love flashing the signs on the overhead scoreboard, announce the lengths they go to fulfill their allegiance.

Often, they proclaim how far they travel to watch Clark and the Fever. Such as: A picture of a thermometer in its mouth read, “Doc said I got Caitlin Fever.” Also, “Make It Rain on the Storm.” And, “We drove 9.5 Hours for Caitlin Clark.”

Well, Lexie Hull’s grandmother came from Spokane, Washington and her sister came from Boston to watch her play and were rewarded with the game of her career – 22 points— and a Fever atmosphere that has shaken up the landscape.

The Clark/Fever phenomenon has been key to promoting women’s basketball across the nation.

“The way the crowd sounds,” Fever coach Christie Sides said, “it sounds like a championship game. It’s an incredible time for women’s basketball and a great time for the Fever.”

Sides’ language and body language spoke loudly after sweeping both opponents. “What a game!” she said. “What a game! What a weekend!”

Sides leapt off the interview podium and hopped a couple of steps out the door.