Caitlin Clark Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

Caitlin Clark had a built-in excuse for Sunday’s loss to the Connecticut Sun in the first round of the WNBA Playoffs, but she isn’t using it.

During the first quarter of Sunday’s game, Caitlin Clark was poked right in the eye by Connecticut Sun guard DiJonai Carrington.

While no foul was called on the play, Clark was clearly in pain as she fell to the floor.

Clark played the remainder of the game with a black eye, but she is refusing to use the injury as an excuse.

During her postgame press conference, Clark quickly insisted that the injury did not affect her and was not an excuse for her poor play.

“Obviously, got me pretty good in the eye; I don’t think it affected me, honestly,” Clark told reporters after the game according to Fox News. “I felt like I got good shots, they just didn’t go down. Obviously, a tough time for that to happen, but I got some pretty good looks. I had three pretty wide open 3s in the first half that you usually make, so I felt like [I] battled and tried my best.

“We were right there. I just felt like we played a crappy game. The flow of the game was really bad.”

Clark managed just 11 points in the game, making just two of her 13 three-point attempts.

She easily could have used her injury as an excuse for her poor showing, but she chose not to.

[Fox News]