Kayla McBride Stands Alone: The Long Quest to Hit 10 Three-Pointers in a WNBA Game

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They don’t call her “McBuckets” for nothing.

Star Minnesota Lynx guard Kayla McBride lifted the WNBA’s best squad to a 103–90 win over Paige Bueckers and the Wings on Sunday, when McBride set a single-game record with 10 three-pointers and also dropped a career-high 43 points, having gone 16-for-21 from the floor and 10-for-14 from deep.

The historic performance marked the first time a WNBA player hit double-digit three-pointers in a single game—though there have been plenty of close calls as of late. Toronto’s Marina Mabrey made nine threes in a game twice this year, while Aces star guard Chelsea Gray came one shy of 10 triples once this season, too.

As three-point shooting outbursts become commonplace across the W, it is fitting that McBride was the one to break the single-game record. Alongside Indiana’s Kelsey Mitchell, McBride has been the best distance shooter when you factor in volume and efficiency. Entering Sunday, Minnesota’s sharpshooter had averaged 17.6 points per game while connecting on 40.5% of her 6.7 three-point attempts per night. The 10 treys on Sunday bumped her to an even 100 on the year, now first in the WNBA ahead of Rhyne Howard (95) and Mitchell (93).

McBride now stands alone in the record books after her career night, which gave the Lynx their 12th win over the past 13 games. Minnesota also improved its record to 27–7 and is sitting atop the WNBA with a comfortable cushion. The team’s excellent season has been defined by the superior play of rookie star Olivia Miles and, more recently, the duo of Miles and Napheesa Collier. McBride, meanwhile, was an All-Star snub after Miles, Natasha Howard and Courtney Williams—all having great years of their own—represented the Lynx.

Despite that, it’s unmistakable that McBride’s career campaign proved crucial in keeping Minnesota afloat without Collier for the first half of the season. Sunday brought another signature performance for the veteran guard, and the Lynx are now the first team to clinch a playoff spot this season.

While plenty of players have come close to McBride’s new mark of 10 threes in a game, especially over the past couple of seasons, nobody else has gone all the way. Mitchell was the first player to reach nine triples in a game, a feat she accomplished during her second season with the Fever in 2019. That stood as the WNBA record for four years, until Jewell Loyd joined the party with nine treys in a 39-point performance with the Storm in 2023.

Over the past two seasons, there have been six instances—including McBride’s record on Sunday—of a player making nine threes in a game. Younger players like Howard, Sabrina Ionescu and Caitlin Clark have prompted this W-wide three-point barrage as of late, but it was the 33-year-old veteran McBride who got the job done.

Here’s a look every WNBA player to hit eight or more three-pointers in a game, with McBride the first to hit 10 as of Sunday:

When Diana Taurasi became the first WNBA player to make eight threes in a game, she held the single-game record outright for seven seasons. Riquna Williams joined her seven years later, but Taurasi held at least a share of the record for 13 years, until Mitchell’s big game in 2019. And the Fever superstar held at least a share of that record for nearly seven years.

Now, we’ll see how long McBride’s three-point record will stand. But if the league’s past has shown us anything, it’s that it’s only a matter of time before she has some company. Nobody else can say that they were there first, though.

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