Cardiac Cougars: Colts Neck Rallies to Reach 1st NJSIAA Group Final

DEPTFORD — Colts Neck boys basketball coach Steve Jannarone said he and his wife were set for a getaway on the weekend of March 15, even though the NJSIAA Group III championship game was scheduled for that same Saturday.

“She asked me if March 15th was okay and I said, ‘Oh yeah, we’ll be done by then,'” Jannarone said.

The Jannarones will still be getting away on Saturday but the new destination is Piscataway, N.J. — a trip gifted to their coach by the Cougars players.

Junior Dillon Younger scored the go-ahead basket with 20 seconds left and Colts Neck got two stops in the final 17 seconds to pull out a come-from-behind, 47-45 win over Ocean City to earn the program’s first ever trip to the NJSIAA state finals.

“They are unbelievable,” Jannarone said of his team. “I’m just along for the ride. They don’t just play all 32 minutes. They keep playing until somebody tells them it’s over. They just keeping coming and going.”

Colts Neck will play reigning champion Ramapo in the Group III final Saturday, 6 p.m. at Jersey Mike’s Arena on the Rutgers University campus hoping to pull off one more stunner to capture the Cougars’ first ever state championship in boys basketball.

Dillon Younger for the lead. Colts Neck up 46-45 with 17 seconds left. pic.twitter.com/4BdeoA0g9U

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) March 12, 2025

“We knew we had it in us,” Younger said. “We were saying before the season, a lot of teams (were going to doubt us). ‘Oh, they lost their two leading scorers (Vova Trotsko and Mike Belcher), so they won’t be that good.’ We just knew we had it in us — we love each other, we’re good friends off the court. We just knew.”

Ocean City led Colts Neck by as many as 10 points and established that lead at 37-27 late in the third quarter, looking to close out the victory to clinch its first trip to a state final since 1972. Younger breathed life into Colts Neck’s cause with a pair of baskets to finish off the quarter and send the Cougars to the fourth trailing, 37-31.

“Ocean City is a town of champions,” Jannarone said. “They have great tradition, an unbelievable coach (John Bruno). They play very similar to us. We were watching film and I kept saying to the kids that they are a carbon copy of us in a lot of ways.”

Colts Neck cut Ocean City’s lead to five three different times during the first three minutes of the fourth, with the Red Raiders pushing the lead back to seven each of the first two times the Cougars inched closer. Freshman Nate Sloane hit a floater in the lane to trim Ocean City’s advantage to 41-36 and from there, the Cougars kept getting closer.

Senior Lukas Sloane hit 1-of-2 free throws to make it 41-37 and after a block by classmate Bryce Belcher ended Ocean City’s ensuing possession, Lukas Sloane again earned a trip to the line and again hit the first free throw. After missing the second, Sloane crashed the glass, ripped the ball away from Ocean City’s rebounder and laid it in to pull Colts Neck within 41-40.

The Cougars forced one of five Ocean City turnovers in the fourth quarter to get the ball back, but Belcher missed a potential go-ahead layup. Fellow senior Dan Buoncore, however, picked him up by stealing the ball in the back court and scoring the layup to give Colts Neck a 42-41 lead — its first lead since 17-16 in the second quarter.

“Our poise has come from the playoffs,” Buoncore said. “All year, we have been in super-close games, but once states started, especially after we lost to Manasquan (in the Shore Conference Tournament quarterfinals) we just stayed poised in games and had a lot of chances to show our poise in those games. We just stayed at it, kept playing defense, kept fighting for each other and that’s what we do.”

Ocean City came right back with a basket by junior Tighe Olek, to which Colts Neck responded with a drive by Lukas Sloane for a 44-43 Cougars lead with under three minutes to go.

Colts Neck was dealt a significant blow with 2:37 left, when Lukas Sloane picked up his fifth foul, leaving the Cougars without their leading scorer for the remainder of the game and a spot in the championship game hanging in the balance. Sloane departed with a team-high 17 points and eight rebounds.

“He’s our leading scorer, obviously we need him in there,” Younger said. “We have so many guys that just come in and play, they know what they’re doing, they’re poised. That’s what happened at the end: poise again.”

“Lukas went out and he is our best scorer, but he didn’t fail to cheer us on from the bench,” Buoncore said. “He told us to keep going, keep playing defense and that makes a difference.”

Sophomore Josh Lenko followed with a drive to the basket that gave Ocean City the lead back, 45-44. On the next Colts Neck possession, Younger fired up a long two that rimmed in and out, giving the ball back to Ocean City with just under a minute-and-a-half left. The Spartans drained most of the clock but junior Leon Brown missed a contested shot in the lane with under 40 seconds left and Buoncore pulled in the rebound.

With another chance to give his team the lead and with his team’s leading scorer on the bench, Younger navigated to the right blocked and flipped a shot up off the backboard and in for a 46-45 lead with 20 seconds left. Ocean City called timeout with 17 seconds left.

“We just kept attacking them,” Younger said. “It was win or go home. We were going to give them everything you’ve got. Keep running at them, keep trying to get steals, keep fighting. Our message to each other was to pick him up. He led us the whole game and our motto was to finish the game.”

“I think (the long two-point attempt) was just the adrenaline of the moment. I usually don’t shoot that. The next time, I knew I had that little kid on me (junior Dean Lappin) and I scored on him before, so I just had to get that to go in.”

Colts Neck forced a Red Raiders turnover on the following possession with seven seconds left and Ocean City fouled Belcher to send the senior to the free throw line. Belcher missed the first and, after a timeout, got the second attempt to drop for a 47-45 lead with 5.2 seconds left.

Ocean City put the ball in the hands of junior Dean Lapin, who launched a stepback three-pointer in an attempt to win the game, but it fell short and Colts Neck’s players and students that made the trip to Deptford High School erupted in celebration.

The last stop that sent Colts Neck to the Group 3 final and the celebration that followed. It will be Colts Neck and defending champion Ramapo painting Rutgers green Saturday at 6 at Jersey Mike’s Arena with the Group 3 title on the line. pic.twitter.com/bY06YlmLKc

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) March 12, 2025

Younger finished with nine points, including eight in the second half, and Buoncore was a major factor on both ends of the floor in contributing 10 points, six rebounds and four steals. All four of Buoncore’s steals came in the third quarter, during which he rolled his ankle, writhed in pain on the floor for approximately 30 seconds before popping up and jogging off the court. He returned to the floor in the fourth quarter.

Ocean City senior point guard and leading scorer Ben McGonigle (13.3 points per game) was not as fortunate. McGonigle rolled his ankle in the first minute of the game, hopped off the floor on one leg and did not return.

“Tragic for them,” Buoncore said. “Obviously, my condolences go to him. I hope he is okay.”

“I think our kids thought that changed things for us,” said Jannarone, whose father, Jim, went to Ocean City High School for part of his high-school career. “McGonigle is family of winners. I told the kids that and maybe I shouldn’t have. Lapin, man, he was tough. By halftime, we knew we were in for a scrap.”

Junior Luke Tjoumakaris led Ocean City with a game-high 21 points and nine rebounds and had eight of his rebounds by the time Ocean City lead, 37-27.

“We have played bigger teams, for sure,” Buoncore said. “This game wasn’t our best rebounding-wise in the first half and then coach Jannarone basically lit our butts on fire. He was like, ‘I haven’t seen one single box-out.’ After that, it was just straight box out, straight get up and get a board.”

Younger’s game-winner was his fourth game-winning shot in the final 30 seconds of a game this season and second during Colts Neck’s run to the Group III final. The junior point guard scored a game-winning putback to beat Hopewell Valley, 40-38, in the Central Jersey Group III quarterfinals.

Now, Colts Neck will experience the first state final in school history Saturday at Rutgers after entering the NJSIAA Tournament with one sectional title to its credit and as the No. 4 seed in the Central Jersey section of Group III.

“Us four seniors (Sloane, Belcher, Buoncore and Jack Freid), we stayed together,” Buoncore said. “We were ready for this moment. We have been playing with each other for four years, we have stuck together and we are hungry.”

“We just find a way,” Jannarone said. “It’s surreal.”