Clark's record-breaking achievements at the University of Iowa helped massively boost the profile of women's basketball, although she was unable to prevent the Hawkeyes falling to a second consecutive NCAA Championship Final defeat.

After she was picked first overall by Indiana at April's WNBA Draft, the countdown began towards Clark's debut in the professional league with the match at Connecticut's Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville a sell-out.

The Sun defence had Clark's measure early on, and two early fouls saw her go to the bench early. She eventually scored just before the midway point of the second period with her lay-up prompting cheers from the near-9,000 crowd.

The 22-year-old started to find her rhythm, but the Sun led by 10 at half-time before going clear in the final quarter. Clark top scored for the Fever with 20 points including four three-pointers. That saw her join WNBA legend Maya Moore and Edna Campbell as the only players to tally 20 points and four three-pointers on debut. On the flip side, the rookie turned the ball over a game-high 10 times.

In the post-match press conference, Clark told reporters, "There's a lot to learn from, it's the first one. There's going to be good ones, there's going to be bad ones. Obviously getting into foul trouble and then you are going to sit on the bench and try to come back and get a little bit of a flow.

"Obviously too many turnovers - that’s not going to get the job done. I thought it took me a little while to settle into the game. I thought the second half was a lot better minus some of the turnovers."

Next up for Clark is her home debut against the New York Liberty. Last year's WNBA runners-up, who have former league MVPs Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones in their starting five, beat the Washington Mystics 85-80 in their opener on Tuesday.