It’s probably tempting for Carlos Stewart Jr. and his Santa Clara teammates to look back at what might have been early this season. The Broncos began the year at 3-5 with four defeats that easily could have gone the other way:
— An 81-74 loss to Arizona State in the Nov. 8 opener in which Santa Clara had the lead with 3 1/2 minutes to play
— An 88-80 overtime loss to North Dakota State on Nov. 13 when the Broncos led by five with less than 10 seconds left in regulation
— A 71-69 home loss to Stanford on Nov. 23 in a game that was tied with 8 seconds left
— And a 76-69 neutral-site defeat to Washington on Nov. 29 where the margin was three points with 11 seconds to play
“That’s a painful walk down memory lane,” Broncos coach Herb Sendek said.
“Lessons learned with those games,” Stewart said. “Obviously, we can’t go back now.”
The Broncos are 9-1 since November, flipping their season to 12-6 overall and 4-1 to start West Coast Conference play. On track for a fourth straight 20-win season, they hit the road this week, facing Loyola Marymount on Thursday in Los Angeles before trekking to Spokane, Washington, to duel 16th-ranked Gonzaga on Saturday.
The team’s only setback over the past 10 games was a 97-94 overtime loss at USF on Dec. 30, which would have been a victory if not for a missed free throw with no time left in the second half.
“At this point, we control our own destiny,” Stewart said. “We’re in a great position. We just have to take advantage of it.”
The destiny the Broncos want to create is a return to the NCAA Tournament, something Santa Clara has not achieved since the days of Steve Nash in the mid-1990s. “That would be amazing,” Stewart said.
So when Santa Clara trailed 28-21 at halftime of Saturday’s home rematch against San Francisco, Stewart took it upon himself to do something about it. After going scoreless in the opening 20 minutes, he shot 9 for 10 from the field and put up 25 points in the second half as the Broncos outscored USF 56-26 and roared to a 77-54 victory.
“At halftime, I made a pact with our team that I didn’t want us to lose, didn’t want to let my team down,” Stewart said. “So I had to come out with a whole different mindset, which is going to carry over the rest of the season because I don’t feel like going back.
“That’s who I am, an aggressive player, an aggressive scorer, an aggressive defender. I’ve got to be consistently that.”
The Broncos are a different team than they were two months ago, averaging more than 85 points over the past 10 games.
And they’ve figured out how to win the close ones. At Oregon State last Thursday, they escaped with an 82-81 overtime win when senior guard Tyeree Bryan dashed in from the 3-point arc for a game-winning tip-in with 3.6 seconds left.
Deep and balanced, the Broncos have won with five different players leading the team in scoring over the past 10.
French-born senior guard Adama-Alpha Bal, a first-team All-WCC pick a year ago, leads the Broncos with a 13.7 scoring average. Christoph Tilly, a 7-foot junior center from Germany, is averaging 13.1 points in the past nine games. Bryan provides 10.1 points per outing.
Elijah Mahi, a 6-7 junior forward from Toronto, came to Santa Clara from nearby West Valley College, where he was the California junior college player of the year after leading his team to a 33-0 record and a state title. He’s scoring 13.3 per game.
And Stewart, who struggled with his shot early in the season, is at 12.6 points per game after averaging 14.9 points and shooting nearly 45 percent from the 3-point arc over the past 13 games.
This is Stewart’s second stint at Santa Clara. He was a first-team All-WCC honoree two years ago before deciding to play last season at LSU, near his hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Stewart has no regrets, but his season was cut short by painful tendinitis in his knee and when he put his name back into the transfer portal last spring he got a call from the 408 area code.
Stewart said he had no idea he’d wind up back with the Broncos. “But when they called me I said, why not? Why not come back to a school where I’m respected and loved? It was like I never left.”