The WNBA single-season scoring record now belongs to Breanna Stewart.
Stewart scored 40 points in the New York Liberty’s narrow win over the Dallas Wings on Tuesday, marking her fourth time this season scoring that many points or more. But it was her 15th point of the night that broke the record, making her the WNBA’s single-season leader with 861 points on the season.
She finished the night with 885 points, and she will have the opportunity to extend her record in the final two games of the regular season. Phoenix Mercury star Diana Taurasi had held the record since 2006.
“It means a lot,” Stewart said of the record. “Any time I’m in the same limelight as ‘D,’ it’s a huge honor.
“I have something I can like over her head a little bit,” she added, laughing. “Really appreciate everything that I’ve been able to do and wouldn’t be able to do it without my teammates.”
In her first season with the Liberty, Stewart has been averaging a career-highs 23.3 points and 3.9 assists per game, as well as 9.4 rebounds per game. The 2018 WNBA MVP spent her first six seasons with Seattle.
In 2006, Taurasi set the record in just 34 games, with an average of 25.3 points per game. Stewart has benefitted from the WNBA’s expanded 40-game schedule, as Tuesday’s game was her 38th of the season.
And Stewart isn’t the only one racking up the points. Jewell Loyd has 852 points with three games left to play and likely will surpass Taurasi’s mark as well. A’ja Wilson has 846 points with two games to play and likely will do the same. Either one even could surpass Stewart by the time the season is done.
“I have this back-and-forth feeling with the scoring record, because any time I’m in the same limelight as D, it’s amazing, just because of what she’s done in her career and what she continues to do,” Stewart said. “But obviously, it’s more games. More games is more points. 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.”