Kenyon Giles’ smile radiated across the Convocation Center and flashed across TV screens during his postgame interview, a towel draped over his head and surrounded by teammates.
He had every reason to beam.
Amid Wichita State basketball’s dominant 84-67 victory over Texas-San Antonio on Sunday — the Shockers’ fifth consecutive win and their first 20-win season since 2019-20 — Giles found a spot atop program history by setting the single-season 3-point record.
He buried triple No. 102 this season, surpassing Colby Rogers’ record of 99 set in 2023-24. Giles has achieved the feat on an efficient, year-wide clip of 38.1%, and did it in four fewer games than the 34 it took Rogers.
“All-time leader,” teammate TJ Williams yelled playfully during Giles’ postgame interview with ESPN+.
Giles, a senior guard, simply replied, “me.”
He finished the night with a team-high 28 points, drilling 6-of-15 shots from long range during the rout. It marked his fifth-consecutive game with 20 or more points and his 16th overall this season.
Yet the record-breaking night didn’t begin with a bang. By halftime, Giles had scored just seven points on a single 3-pointer. However, the deep trust from his teammates and coaches, forged in the heat of summer workouts, allowed him to remain aggressive and hunt for his spots.
“You can never give up,” Giles said in his postgame radio interview. “If you can always find a shot, it will harm the defense. I have to keep applying pressure on the defense, and my teammates are going to find me.”
Now that he owns the all-time program record, Giles’ focus has immediately shifted to what he insists matters most: Winning late in the season.
“Coach (Paul Mills) talked to us, ‘It’s March. March is for men,’” he said in his postgame radio interview. “We have to go be men, handle business.”
For Giles, that focused, competitive mindset isn’t new. It’s rooted in his upbringing in Chesapeake, Va., where two older brothers instilled in him the value of learning from losses and the unwavering truth that seeing another mark in the win column far outweighs individual statistics.
He has carried that philosophy to Wichita State (20-10, 12-5 American), where the Shockers have now secured at least a double-bye in the American Conference Championship, scheduled from March 11-15. A senior day win Saturday against Florida Atlantic would push Wichita State into the No. 2 seed at the tournament and a bye all the way to the semifinals.
“They (Giles’ brothers) always told me winning is everything,” Giles told The Sunflower on Feb. 20. “You know, you have good games, but you lost.
“I was always chasing them, wanting to be better than them. Especially growing up, playing them one-on-one, they would beat me, and that instilled a lot of competitiveness in me.”
Years later, Giles began his final chase for the record almost as soon as the second half started Sunday. Less than four minutes after the break, he drained a triple, leaving him one shy of Rogers’ mark.
Giles tied it not even two minutes later when junior center Will Berg set a perfect screen on his defender, creating ample space for an uncontested pull-up.
Then, after shaking off another late UTSA closeout, Giles found himself on top of Wichita State’s all-time list since the inception of the 3-point line in the 1980s, giving the Shockers a commanding 61-43 lead. He tacked on two more by the end of the game for good measure and ended the second half with 21 points.
“KG was able to get hot,” coach Paul Mills said in his postgame radio interview.
One-hundred two and counting: That’s where Giles is at now. But, as he understands best, victories are what matters most this time of year.
