Jewell Loyd takes WNBA scoring record from Breanna Stewart

Jewell Loyd is the all-time single-season scoring leader for the WNBA.

Last week, Breanna Stewart held the honor, as the New York Liberty star became the first of three players this season to surpass the previous mark. But on Sunday, Loyd finished at the top of the pack, scoring 939 points in 2023 compared to Stewart’s 919. And the Seattle Storm guard did it in 38 games to Stewart’s 40.

Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson also broke the previous record, set by Diana Taurasi, who scored 860 points in 2006, when the league played shorter seasons. Wilson scored 912 points in 40 games in 2023.

Loyd moved past Stewart in the Storm’s second-to-last game Friday. While Stewart moved ahead of her again in the Liberty’s final game Sunday, Loyd scored 28 points in the Storm’s season finale later that day to take the record. The 29-year-old guard needed nine points to beat out Stewart — and she reached that mark in the first four minutes of the game, nailing a three-pointer with 6:33 left in the first quarter to seal her place in league history.

THE MOMENT. THE RECORD. pic.twitter.com/0UKVl2BZpv

— Seattle Storm (@seattlestorm) September 10, 2023

“That wasn’t a goal of mine at all coming into the season,” Loyd said. “Even hearing about it and talking about it, it never was a goal of mine. It kind of just happened naturally. I think it’s pretty cool. What I miss, (two) games and still was able to produce the way I was producing, so that’s pretty cool.”

It was Loyd’s first game since signing a two-year supermax contract extension with Seattle, which she said Sunday was a result of her having no desire to become an unrestricted free agent.

“I didn’t have to think about it like seriously until a week ago,” Loyd said. “It’s kind of hard to make decisions while you’re in a season just because you’re not thinking about it. It takes a lot of energy and you have to focus in on what you’re going to do with your life.

“It didn’t feel like any pressure or I felt overwhelmed. At that same time, I understand the business and I knew kind of what I wanted. It was a feeling for me. At the end of the day it was a pretty easy decision.”

As Loyd moves forward with the Storm, and Stewart does the same with the Liberty, expect more records to fall. Stewart predicted as much after she broke Taurasi’s record last week.

“More games is more points,” Stewart said. “As we have 40-game seasons, and we continue to build off that, there’s going to be a lot of records that are broken.”