Kenny Boynton had ended 12 other games in his UF career before last Saturday without a 3-pointer, but that didn’t register immediately with his shocked teammates.
It had been nearly a year since they previously saw Boynton hit nothing but glass and iron from behind the arc.
Following Florida’s home win against LSU, the news broke to senior guard Erving Walker that Boynton’s 34-game streak with at least one 3-pointer had been snapped on a 0-of-4 night from outside.
“Oh, I didn’t even know it. Wow,” Walker said. “He’ll start another one back up soon.”
Sophomore guard Scottie Wilbekin didn’t realize it either.
Ahead of tonight’s road game against Ole Miss (13-6, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) at 7 p.m., Boynton, a junior, was just five consecutive games away from tying Lee Humphrey’s school record.
“No, I didn’t,” Wilbekin said.
“He didn’t have a three last night or something? That’s something. I didn’t even know about that.”
The No. 14 Gators (15-4, 3-1 SEC) have become accustomed to seeing the 6-foot-2 Boynton light up the 3-point line this season.
His 66 threes led the nation until his most recent showing allowed three other players to slip past him in the rankings.
“He kept telling me the whole entire time on the bench, ‘Coach, I need one more shot,” UF coach Billy Donovan joked. “I don’t even know if Kenny realized it during the game, and I didn’t realize it.
“It was one of those games; we didn’t shoot the ball well [against LSU], and I thought Kenny had some pretty decent looks.”
Since SEC play has started, consistent 3-point shooting has been a problem for not only Boynton, but his team as well.
While Florida’s 202 threes are still the most in the NCAA, the Gators have shot below both their season shooting percentage and made 3-pointers per game average in three of their four SEC games.
“Every team is going to guard you differently,” Donovan said.
“Maybe in years past, Kenny, if he had missed a few shots like that he could have gotten discouraged.”
Aside from Boynton, Donovan said he also hasn’t seen a change in the rest of his team’s shot selection.
So far in conference play, 44.2 percent of Florida’s shots have been 3-pointers.The Gators’ season average is 43.9 percent, which is ninth highest in the nation, according to Kenpom.com.
“It all varies,” Donovan said. “Someone’s asked me how many 3-point shots do you want to take a game? Clearly the last few years we were not a great shooting team. I would consider us an average shooting team, and I think our percentages reflected that. But we have better shooters (this year).”
Though Boynton saw his streak end last week, he may have the opportunity to start another against an Ole Miss team struggling to contain opposing shooters.
Entering Thursday, the Rebels’ 126 allowed 3-pointers were tied with South Carolina for the most an SEC team has given up this season.
“[Boynton] understands the length and how long the game is,” Donovan said. “He’s kind of kept his composure and he’s played through a lot of those tough shooting nights, but he hasn’t had a lot of them.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
After going 0-of-4 from distance against LSU, guard Kenny Boynton’s streak of 34 straight games with a three ended, and he no longer leads the nation in made 3-pointers.
