Breanna Stewart scored her 861st point of this WNBA season Tuesday night, setting the WNBA record for the highest-scoring season in WNBA history. The massive milestone occurred when Stewart scored her 15th point of the game, in what ended up being a thrilling 94-93 victory for Stewart's New York Liberty against the Dallas Wings. The win was also the Liberty's seventh straight, which moves them within one game of the first-place Las Vegas Aces, with two games left to go in the regular season.
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Stewart clearly didn't let the scoring accomplishment distract her from her performance. She finished the night with 40 points — the fourth time she's scored 40 or more this season — along with grabbing 10 rebounds. Stewart went on to score 24 more points after breaking the record — initially set by Diana Taurasi in 2006 — allowing her to reach 885 points on the year. Considering she still has two more games left to play, one would imagine that Stewart will likely finish with somewhere around 940-950 points.
Rackin' them up 👏
With her 15th point of the night, @breannastewart sets a new WNBA record and becomes the new All-Time points leader in a single season with a total of 861 PTS and counting #MoreThanGame pic.twitter.com/mBJtPJHRde
— WNBA (@WNBA) September 6, 2023
While this doesn't detract from Stewart's milestone, it is important to note that Taurasi's 2006 record was set in 34 games, compared with Stewart breaking it in 38. The WNBA implemented a new, 40-game regular season slate this year, up from 36 in 2022. Prior to that, the league played a 34-game season for most of its 27-year history.
After Tuesday night's game, Stewart was asked about breaking Taurasi's scoring record.
"It means a lot," Stewart said. "Any time I'm in the same limelight as [Taurasi], it's a huge honor. I have something I can like hold over her head a little bit. Really appreciate everything that I've been able to do and wouldn't be able to do it without my teammates."
One of those teammates is also on the brink of history. Fresh off her debut sneaker release last week, Liberty point guard Sabrina Ionescu is just two 3-pointers away from the setting a new all-time single-season record in threes made. With two games to go, one assumes the record is all but hers at this point.
It's safe to say that Stewart and Ionescu would both happily trade their record-setting seasons in order to win a WNBA championship. Luckily, the Liberty are playing so well right now that, once the playoffs start, they might get to have their cake and eat it, too.
