Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers delivered matching 29-point performances on Friday night as the Indiana Fever used a strong fourth quarter to defeat the short-handed Dallas Wings 98-87 in Indianapolis. The two former No. 1 picks will pair up next month at the FIBA World Cup in Berlin.

Clark scored or assisted on 51 percent of Indiana's points, while Bueckers finished nearly identically, contributing to 50 percent of Dallas' scoring alongside six assists and six rebounds. The performances marked the sixth regular-season meeting between the two in which both posted at least 25 points and five assists.

The matchup stayed close early, with Dallas leading 37-35 at halftime before both stars took over in the third quarter, combining for 30 points on 11-for-15 shooting.

Clark praised her counterpart's game after the win.

"Paige is a tremendous player," said Clark. "She takes what the defense gives her. She doesn't force anything. She's smooth. She finds the open teammate. So she's just a really tough guard.

"With really good players, you've got to throw a lot of different things at them. They're going to make tough shots, and you live with some of them. Then I thought in the fourth quarter, we did a tremendous job of kind of taking her out of things."

Fever coach Stephanie White pointed to the growing frequency of such head-to-head duels around the league.

"When you've got two great players that can create shots for themselves really easily, there are flows of the game where I think you're going to see that," said White. "We see it in the NBA all the time. I think that as players keep getting better, we're seeing it in the W as well."

Bueckers acknowledged Dallas' fourth-quarter collapse, during which Indiana outscored the Wings 35-21.

"In the fourth quarter, they just laid it on us," said Bueckers. "They played more physical, they wanted it more, and that's unacceptable as a team. We have to string together 40 minutes."

Indiana improved to 22-12 and has won 10 of its past 13 games, while Dallas fell to 20-15.