Iowa star Jada Gyamfi hypes up former teammate Caitlin Clark after heroic Indiana debut: "She's back baby"

Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark announced herself in the professional arena in emphatic fashion, albeit in a 79-76 preseason loss to the Dallas Wings on Friday night, scoring 11 of her team's first 19 points.

The former Iowa Hawkeyes standout registered 21 points (6 for 15 from the floor and 5 for 13 from beyond the arc), three rebounds and two assists in the game.

The game featured her trademark logo 3-pointers that had become her specialty in college basketball and showed that she will probably take to the WNBA like a fish to water.

Her former Hawkeyes teammate, Jada Gyamfi, who was there during Clark's big draft night to support her, continued in the same vein, hyping Clark's Indiana Fever debut on Instagram.

Gyamfi reposted a clip of Clark scoring a 3-pointer from the game on her Instagram stories and captioned it:

"She's back baby."

Gyamfi's IG stories

Caitlin Clark seamlessly fits into pro basketball

The Caitlin Clark effect manifested itself for the first time in the Indiana Fever's game at UT Arlington's College Park Center, which was sold out to watch the ex-college basketball star make her professional debut in a preseason contest.

She was cheered on by the crowd, which contained mostly Dallas Wings fans, and she gave them a show the whole night, finishing with 16 points in the first half.

During her postgame news conference, Clark sounded excited to be involved in the professional game for the first time in her career.

"My biggest goal coming into tonight was to continue to be myself, play aggressive," Clark said. "I thought that's what I did. I think there's a lot to be proud of. You couldn't ask for a better game, really, for women's basketball to kick off this [WNBA] year. A tremendous game coming down to the wire, both teams competing. That's going to be the story of the entire year."

The Indiana Fever have not reached the playoffs since 2016, but now they have the last two No. 1 WNBA draft picks, including Aliyah Boston from last year, and they will hope to change that torrid statistic this year.

The increased firepower was on display, with Boston and Clark combining for a bucket during the fourth quarter and displaying chemistry throughout the game.

Caitlin Clark showed that she was willing to take responsibility at the WNBA level and be the leader of the Indiana Fever by taking the buzzer-beater shot that would have tied the game, although it didn't go in.