"Back and better than ever": Gabbie Marshall, Patrick McCaffrey can't contain their excitement as Caitlin Clark stuns fans with 32-point outin

Former Iowa Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark missed two and a half weeks of action due to a quad injury. On Saturday evening, she made a strong return in the Indiana Fever's 102-88 win over the previously unbeaten defending champions, the New York Liberty.

Clark tallied 32.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 9.0 assists, while draining a career-high seven 3-pointers. After the game, Clark posted snippets of herself on her Instagram page.

One of the pictures was of her pink custom Nike Protro PE "The Bellas" sneakers featuring a picture of her dog Bella, a staple since her Iowa days.

She captioned the post:

"Good to be back," Clark wrote.

Clark's former Hawkeyes teammate and friend Gabbie Marshall hyped her performance in the comments:

"Back n better than ever," Marshall wrote.

Clark's boyfriend's brother, Butler Bulldogs forward Patrick McCaffery, also appreciated the performance by the Fever star.

"One of them ones fasho," McCaffery wrote.

Marshall's comment on IG

McCaffery's comment on IG

Caitlin Clark gets widespread praise

Caitlin Clark's stellar performance received widespread praise and even defeated opponent, New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu, was in awe of her shooting.

"I don't think it's defeating," Ionescu said. "I think obviously we know what a great shooter she is, and I think we just gave her too many easy ones. Obviously she has great range, and her ability to get her shot off is really impressive, especially with missing some games.

"And so on a personal level I'm really happy to see her back out on the court healthy, feeling good just for her, I'm happy she's back."

Fever coach Stephanie White also revealed her awe of her star player's stunning performance against the defending champions.

"Don't we always expect that kind of game from Caitlin?" White said. "I knew her adrenaline was going to be high to start. She's been itching to get back out there.

"[Her scoring] carried us in the first half, and then everybody else carried us in the second half. Her decision-making was outstanding; she did a really good job of getting everybody involved, and that's what she does."

Despite missing a huge chunk of game time, Caitlin Clark has averaged 19.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 9.3 assists in four games during her second season in the WNBA for the Indiana Fever.