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Colts Neck Completes Improbable Run to Group 3 Championship

Matt Manley|March 15, 2025|Last Updated March 16, 2025

PISCATAWAY — During the first half of the NJSIAA Group III championship game, the Colts Neck boys basketball team did not look the part of a state championship team. Then again, not many would have taken the Cougars for a state championship team for most of the 2024-25 season.

When crunch time arrives, however, the Cougars thrive, and just as they raised their game during this entire run through the Group III playoffs, Colts Neck met the moment when it was time.

Senior Lukas Sloane carried Colts Neck through a rough-shooting first half and junior Dillon Younger sparked a second-half awakening that carried the Cougars past two-time defending Group III champion Ramapo, 54-46, to win the school’s first overall state championship in boys basketball.

“I never thought at the beginning of the season, with the slow start we had, that we would be in this situation,” Sloane said. “This atmosphere is crazy. I don’t even know what to say. This is unreal. I don’t think anybody thought we would make it this far in a million years.”

“We haven’t changed a single thing that we do at practice or to get ready for games. I think it’s just the way the season has gone so far. In the state tournament, every game counts, and when it counts, we play really hard.”

Sloane scored 13 of his 20 points for the game — and 13 of his team’s 15 points in the half — during the first 16 minutes, and also added 12 rebounds and four blocked shots to lead the Colts Neck effort on both ends of the floor.

Colts Neck celebrates its first NJSIAA Group title after beating Ramapo 54-46 in the Group 3 championship game. (Photo by Scott Stump) - Colts Neck championship

Colts Neck celebrates its first NJSIAA Group title after beating Ramapo 54-46 in the Group 3 championship game. (Photo by Scott Stump)

Younger, meanwhile, was one of five Colts Neck players to see the floor and go scoreless during the first half, but turned things around for himself and his team after halftime. The junior point guard scored all nine of his points in the second half — including the first three-pointer of the game for Colts Neck — and also contributed six rebounds and eight assists in the victory.

Colts Neck shot 0-for-7 from three-point range and 35 percent from the field during the first half, but only trailed Ramapo, 20-15, thanks to another strong showing on the defensive end and the glass. Despite facing another roster that had the overall height advantage, Colts Neck out-rebounded Ramapo, 25-23.

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

Sloane also blocked four of five Colts Neck blocked shots, which has been an under-the-radar strength for the undersized Cougars. Colts Neck ended the season with three players — Sloane, senior Bryce Belcher and freshman Nate Sloane — averaging at least one block per game.

“We’re smart kids,” Lukas Sloane said. “We know how to track the ball. We get deflections, we play good, fundamental defense and being on the help-side, it makes it so much easier to time those blocks.”

“Every game, we’re undersized,” Younger said. “We’ve just got to box out. Our toughness is something that is hard to measure. I think a lot of teams see our height and think to keep driving, but we can block shots. Bryce gets up like crazy, Nate has a long wingspan and Lukas blocks everything. And Nolan (Duddy) even pinned one on the backboard today. Our team gets up there.”

From left: Colts Neck's Dan Buoncore, Dillon Younger, Bryce Belcher and Lukas Sloane. (Image: Matt Manley) - Colts Neck Group 3 Champs

From left: Colts Neck’s Dan Buoncore, Dillon Younger, Bryce Belcher and Lukas Sloane. (Image: Matt Manley)

The Cougars found the range in the third quarter, starting with a three-pointer by Younger that broke Colts Neck’s cold spell from beyond the arc. Ramapo caught fire during the third as well and the teams combined to shoot 16-for-21 from the field, with Colts Neck going 8-for-9.

Colts Neck shot 5-for-6 from beyond the three-point line in the third quarter, with Younger hitting two and Sloane, Belcher and senior Dan Buoncore each knocking down one. The hot shooting helped Colts Neck overcome a deficit that reached as much as eight in the first half and seven in the third.

“Seeing other people’s shots go in just makes them more comfortable,” Sloane said. “Dillon made the first three, so I think that just opens it up for other people to say, ‘Oh, he made it, so I can make it, too.’

“Coach said they were going to be focused on me, collapsing inside. They can’t really guard me driving into the paint, so once we had that speech in the locker room, I made it my first choice to kick it out and find other guys open.”

Younger hit the biggest shot of the quarter for Colts Neck, nailing a three as he was fouled to give Colts Neck its first lead of the game. Younger hit the ensuing free throw to put Colts Neck ahead, 37-35, but Ramapo answered with a three from sophomore Finn Marrah to give the Raiders a 38-37 lead heading to the fourth.

In the fourth, Colts Neck re-discovered its defense to pair with a now-clicking offense. Ramapo led, 41-39, with five minutes to go, but Colts Neck surged in front, 43-41, on a pair of layups by Belcher off feeds from Younger. Those baskets kicked off a 14-1 run that effectively clinched Colts Neck its first overall group title. Younger had three assists during the run, including one to Buoncore that came off a steal and made it 45-41 when Ramapo had a chance to tie the game or take the lead with two minutes to go.

“Lukas was carrying us in the first half,” Younger said. “He was doing his thing, but we all had to get adjusted. We’re lucky that he was working in the first half. From the start, I could tell they were leaving me open, but I don’t know why I didn’t pull it. Even for all of us, they were packing it in trying to stop Lukas and we were all looking to drive more. Then, we hit a couple, they came out on us, we attacked and started getting wide-open layups.”

Colts Neck closed the game by making its last six shots — all layups — and went 5-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final minute. The Cougars shot 14-for-19 (74 percent) from the field and finished 54 percent (21-for-39) for the game.

“The scouting report on them was their help-side defense was crazy,” Sloane said. “They had four guys overloaded to the side where the ball was, so we just made it a very key point to swing the ball around and get those open shots.”

Senior Jack Freid scored the only first-half basket for Colts Neck that did not come from Sloane, then poured in nine in the second half — seven in the final quarter — to end his night with 11 points. Belcher and Buoncore each scored seven points in the second half, with Buoncore also handing out four assists.

Colts Neck held Ramapo leading scorer and freshman A.J. Greig to 10 points, while senior Ryan Goldman led the Raiders with 12 on 5-for-15 shooting. Ramapo was seeking its third consecutive NJSIAA Group III championship while appearing in the final for the fourth straight year, but graduated its three top scorers from the team that dominated the 2024 Group III final vs. Freehold Boro, 94-47. Senior Charlie Wingfield turned in eight points, six rebounds and five assists in the loss.

Sloane’s 20-point performance closes out a state tournament run in which the senior averaged 20.3 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.3 blocked shots per game during Colts Neck’s six-game run.

“No one thought we would make it here,” Sloane said. “It’s good motivation for the guys. Every time we were picked against, there would be a screen shot in the group text and everyone would just get riled up.”

Colts Neck is the first of the six high schools in the Freehold Regional School District — Freehold Boro, Freehold Township, Howell, Manalapan and Marlboro — to win an overall state championship in boys basketball, despite being the most recent of the schools to open. Since the 2018-19 season, four of the six Freehold Regional schools have reached an overall group final, with Freehold Township losing to Newark East Side in the 2019 Group IV final, Marlboro losing to Elizabeth in the 2022 Group IV final and Freehold Boro falling to Ramapo in the 2024 Group III championship.

” We have had a lot of chances and you have to be pretty good to have a lot of chances in sectional finals,” said third-year Colts Neck coach Steve Jannarone, who was an assistant under Lou Piccola — the program’s only other head coach — before taking over the girls program and eventually moving over to be the head coach of the boys team before the 2022-23 season. “Lou won a lot of games. This town has the talent and has the ability, so I just think it was bound to happen.”

Colts Neck won one sectional championship with Piccola — a 600-plus-game winner between Xaverian of Brooklyn and Colts Neck — at the helm and lost in five sectional finals. In its lone sectional championship year, Colts Neck lost to Atlantic City in the Group IV semifinals.

“It’s been building from day one,” Jannarone said. “(Piccola) had a great track record coming from New York with a couple state titles and he said right from the beginning. It’s always been the goal, we’ve had some bad luck, but we’ve always had the ability to get there.”

To win its first championship, Colts Neck won four games on its home floor during the Central Jersey Group III playoffs, including a buzzer-beating win over Hopewell Valley, a win over defending sectional champion Freehold Boro and a sectional final victory over perennial contender Ewing. In the Group III semifinal at Deptford High School, Colts Neck beat Ocean City on a go-ahead basket by Younger with 20 seconds left after trailing by 10 with 10 minutes to play.

“We’re in these close games every single game,” Sloane said. “It doesn’t matter if we’re facing the top team in the state or the worst team in the Shore. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it’s helped us a hell of a lot come state tournament time.”

“Our chemistry was insane this year,” Younger said. “We never give up. Ocean City, we were down 10 in the second half. We just don’t give up, we have great chemistry, and we just played as hard as we can.”

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