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BASKETBALL

Asbury Park Press

DEPTFORD -- With 2:37 left in the boys basketball Group 3 state semifinal between Ocean City and Colts Neck on Tuesday, it appeared that a valiant comeback would come up short.

The Cougars' star senior Lukas Sloane had single-handedly cut Ocean City's five point lead to just one point, and he added to that heroic effort with yet another score to give his team a 44-43 lead. But just a few moments later, Sloane fouled out with a team-high 17 points.

What seemed like an unfortunate ending was just the start of another chapter in the most miraculous story of the Shore basketball season. After Ocean City swiftly regained the lead, Colts Neck shut out the Red Raiders in the final two minutes. It set the stage for senior Dillon Younger as he drove into the paint with a clunky and gritty move that was finished off with a 10-foot jumper through contact to give the Cougars a 46-45 lead.

"Our best scorer is out," Younger said. "I needed to just step up. And obviously our whole team got us there. Rebounding, defense, making them turn over the ball. So I just knew it was my time to get that basket."

Appropriately, the Cardiac Cats capped off the comeback victory with two defensive stands. Colts Neck beat Ocean City 47-45 and secured its place in the state championship at Rutgers on Saturday. It wasn't pretty, but it got the job done. And it was the perfect finish for a team that has been defined by a willingness to win by any means necessary.

"We all knew we had it in us," said Younger. "We love each other. We're good friends off the court."

Colts Neck travels well: The Den

The love extended to the devoted student section, The Den, that provided home court advantage throughout the team's run to a sectional championship and traveled to give the Cougars a home court advantage even while being 70 miles from home. The Den stormed the court in the aftermath of the momentous victory.

"The Den didn't travel an hour and 30 minutes to watch us lose," Sloane said. "I had to get the fans what they wanted."

The constant for the Cougars was their defense, and senior Dan Buoncore set the standard with multiple steals including a steal-and-score in the closing minutes of the fourth.

"I love my teammates. Us seniors, we've been playing together for four years, we've been staying ready for this moment," said Buoncore. "And most importantly we play defense."

The Cougars overcame a 10-point deficit late in the third quarter to topple an impressive Ocean City that came into the game with a 22-6 record. The Red Raiders were beset by a devastating injury just 18 seconds into the game when the team's lone senior and leading scorer, Ben McGonigle, exited the game with an apparent ankle injury. But that loss seemed to galvanized the talented group as they seized control in the second quarter and extended their lead in the third. Luke Tjoumakaris had a game-high 21 points for Ocean.

But Colts Neck would not be denied. And no matter how much the Cougars had struggled in various aspects, they found ways to turn those shortcomings into strengths. They were an abysmal 10 of 20 at the free throw line and struggled on the glass, but the turning point of the game came when Sloane crafted a three-point play. He made his first free throw and grabbed his own offensive rebound on the second and put it back in for a score to cut Ocean City's lead to 41-40 midway through the fourth quarter.

"This is my senior season, I've gotta give it all that I got," Sloane said. "I don't think we crashed the boards one time, so I was thinking, let's give them something they ain't seen. He came out with the ball on his hip and I just took it and scored."

Colts Neck coach Steve Jannarone admitted he wasn't thrilled with the principle behind the play, but praised the execution from the star senior.

"That same play, he did it against Ewing and I was ready to strangle him," the coach said. "So the fact he ignored me and got it was to his credit because he knows what can and can't do."

That level of confidence is a theme for Colts Neck, as they've made fools out of naysayers and established themselves as the Shore Conference's unsung elite team. This run is particularly impressive given the recurring state-wide narrative that this winter was a "down year" for boys basketball at the Shore.

"I think the Shore speaks for itself," Jannarone said. "Anybody that thinks we have to prove anything hasn't been watching."

Next: Colts Neck vs. Ramapo in the Group 3 final

They'll face reigning state champion Ramapo in the Group 3 final, giving the Cougars one more chance to stun the entire state with another upset. But it's difficult to imagine how any moment could top the theatrics of Tuesday night's semifinal.

"It's just surreal," said Younger. "All my friends here - it's just an amazing experience. Can't ask for better."

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BASKETBALL

Asbury Park Press

PISCATAWAY -- The forces of destiny that permeated the Colts Neck boys basketball team were as omnipresent as the external doubt. But on the grand stage at Jersey Mike's Arena for the Group 3 state championship Saturday night, the Cougars left no room for doubt.

Facing reigning state champion Ramapo, the Cougars faced the same chorus of sports soothsayers that had said the team would lose to Ewing and Ocean City. The silence of the doubters was as deafening as the booming student section as Colts Neck outmaneuvered the bigger and talented Raiders to win 54-46 for the first state championship in program history.

With leading scorer fouling out, Colts Neck boys basketball comes back, reaches state final

Coach Steve Jannarone couldn't ignore the fate that always seemed to surround his team, dating back to innocuous trip to see his son. They went out to dinner at an upscale restaurant that required a suit jacket, and Jannarone bought an elegant green piece for the occasion

"I bought this jacket and I kid to my wife, if we get something green, it'll be something I can wear in the state finals," Jannarone said. "I had been rocking a 20-year-old polo for the whole tournament, so it was a big decision to try it out. And it worked. So there's definitely something going on."

Whether it was the fashion gods or the basketball gods, there was always something good going on about this year's most unlikely state champ. The Cougars scrapped their way through the first two quarters while Lukas Sloane kept the team afloat with 13 of the team's 15 points at halftime.

After trailing Ramapo 20-15 at halftime, the Cougars could do no wrong as they surged in the next 16 minutes. They made eight of their nine field goal attempts in the third quarter and shrunk the Ramapo lead to 38-37 heading into the fourth. Fresh of his late-game heroics against Ocean City, junior Dillon Younger had nine points in the third quarter. The results laid bare that Colts Neck was built for these moments.

"In the Shore, we play a lot of teams that are bigger and more physical," said Sloane. "We just have that hustle that I don't think any team in the state has. That's why we came out on top."

The defensive hand placement was immaculate as they ruined the Raiders' rhythm with blocks and steals. The ball movement was a work of art as scoring opportunities flowed to seniors Dan Buoncore, Jack Freid and Bryce Belcher, who made back-to-back shots to give Colts Neck the defining 43-41 lead midway through the fourth as they rode that momentum to the finish line.

"We just believe in ourselves," Younger said. "We believe in each other especially. Lukas believed in us to hit all these shots, he was carrying us in the beginning. Our chemistry is the best."

Colts Neck embodied team basketball in a way that it galvanized the community beyond just the student-athletes on the team. The Cougars' student section, The Den, dwarfed its counterpart from Ramapo. The vocal coalition of community members and alumni roared at each turning point, just as they had all through the team's incredible playoff run.

"It's really great for the whole community to come out," Belcher said. "The Den has been supporting us all year and it has been truly amazing for us to just perform in front of them. It's the greatest feeling in the world."

The Cougars were a team that faced an unfathomable climb to the top. They embraced each fateful twist and turn of their journey.

Before the state championship, Jannarone didn't shy away from reminding his team of the stakes of the moment and what it would mean if his players could deliver the first boys basketball state championship in school history.

"We talked about how they matched a legacy by winning a sectional. By winning the next one (in the state semifinal against Ocean City), they'd surpassed it," Jannarone said. "The talk today was: win this and you can never be surpassed."

Colts Neck scraps their way to victory against Ramapo

The start of the game could not have been uglier for fans hoping to see high-flying offensive basketball. After three scoreless minutes, Ramapo got the first points of the game on free throw and added the game's first field goal with 4:20 left in the first quarter. It was a slog, and it was exactly what Colts Neck needed.

Ramapo never seemed to fully recover from that opening offensive funk while Sloane kept Colts Neck afloat by scoring all of his team's six first quarter points. The Raiders held a 10-6 lead, but that seemed to foreshadow the Cougars mucky path to victory.

All the while Sloane buoyed his team and reached double figures before another Colts Neck player could put the ball through the net. Ramapo inched forward to an 18-12 lead before the Raiders found themselves stuck in the mud again, going scoreless for four minutes before scoring the final bucket of the second to hold a 20-15 lead at halftime.

The foundation of bricks in the first half only augmented Colts Neck's gritty style of play in the third. The Cougars surged immediately to keep pace with Ramapo's best offensive stretch of the game, steadily shrinking the lead largely thanks to their hot hand from beyond the arc.

Colts Neck was only 5-for-15 from three-point range in the game, but all five makes came in the third quarter. None of them were bigger than Younger's two makes, the first of which tied the game at 33-33 and the second of which was a four-point play that gave Colts Neck a 37-35 lead, their first of the game, with 57.5 seconds left in the third.

Ramapo answered to hold a 38-37 lead heading into the fourth quarter, but the Raiders were running out of answers.

They relinquished the lead for good after Belcher's back-to-back scores that put Colts Neck up 43-41 with 3:52 left in the game. The Cougars played an astute game of keep away to bleed off more than a minute of game time. Clutch scores by Bouncore and Freid in quick success gave the team a two-possession lead and put Ramapo into intentional foul territory.

The final minutes were as much of a slog as the first minutes, all signifying that Colts Neck had executed their strategy to perfection.

Sloane finished with game-high 20 points in addition to 12 rebounds. Freid was the other Cougar in double figures with 11. Younger was the do-it-all point guard as he finished a well-rounded performance with nine points, eight assists and six rebounds. Belcher and Bouncore each finished with seven points.

In first ever appearance, Colts Neck takes first ever state title

Just 27 years after its inception, Colts Neck became the first high school in the Freehold Regional School District to win a boys basketball state championship. It's one more stunning factual element to an unlikely story.

The Cougars didn't have a shred of momentum heading into the playoffs. They lost by 30 points to Manasquan in their exit from the Shore Conference Tournament, and ended the regular season with a loss to Sayreville that brought their record to 14-9.

Of course, fate intervened for a team that can sparsely be explained in any other way. Lukas Sloane himself emerged as a star and doubled his scoring output as a senior. But the clutch performances of Buoncore, Younger and Belcher were what got the team to Rutgers to play for a state title.

In a Shore Conference basketball season that been repeatedly denigrated as a down year for the league, Colts Neck was battle-hardened enough to seize a state crown. If this is a down year, then things are certainly looking up for basketball at the Shore.