The Colts Neck Cougars are New Jersey’s Group 3 state champions after a 54-46 win over Ramapo at Rutgers. 
The Cougars turned to celebrate with their fans at Rutgers after capturing the school’s first basketball state title. 
Steve Jannarone led the Cougars to the first state boys basketball title in school history and the first boys hoops title in Freehold District history. 
Lukas Sloane had 20 points and 12 rebounds against Ramapo. 
Dillon Younger inbounds the ball in the second half of the Group 3 state championship at Rutgers.
By Rich Chrampanis
PISCATAWAY – Fans don’t fill out brackets for New Jersey high school basketball like they do for NCAA’s March Madness, but if they did, no one would have had Colts Neck going the distance in Group 3 as a fourth seed.
The Cougars shocked the state with a 54-46 win over Ramapo to win their first boys basketball state title. Veteran coach Steve Jannarone saw sports and superstition go hand in hand as he tried to process the incredible play of his team for the better part of three weeks.
“The only thing I’m going to say to you is there may have been a premonition,” Jannarone said to the media gathered around him. “We were visiting my children, who live kind of all over the South,” Jannarone said. “We were in Atlanta and my son in Dallas was telling us we were going to go out to dinner with his girlfriend and a jacket was required.” He didn’t have one with him so he had to purchase one.
He joked with his wife that if he bought something green, he could wear it during the state finals. “We both laughed and laughed,” he 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.”
While Jannarone said, “Maybe there was something” lucky with the jacket, he noted the more likely reason was “because of the character of these kids.”
Lucky green blazer aside, Colts Neck didn’t have any fortunate bounces or outside forces involved at Jersey Mike’s Arena. The Cougars more than earned the right to be called state champions with a gritty performance against the two-time defending state champions.
Early on, it appeared Ramapo was setting itself up for a three-peat. The Raiders built a 20-15 halftime lead, neutralizing nearly the entire Colts Neck roster with the exception of senior guard Lukas Sloane, who had 13 of the Cougars’ 15 first-half points.
“I know playing in this atmosphere, you know everyone’s a little scared at first,” Sloane said. “After a good halftime speech, after a good little motivation, everyone kind of gets in their groove.”
“Our coach just told us we had to move the ball around,” Sloane said. As the nearly sole scorer in the first half, Sloane knew the Raiders’ defense was “just going to start collapsing on me,” opening the court for his teammates to step up.
“We had some good dishes, some good passes, and, you know, we just ended up scoring.”
The Cougars came to life in the third quarter and spread the wealth. Trailing by seven, Colts Neck turned to hot shooting from beyond the arc. Dan Buoncore’s corner 3-pointer tied the game at 33, then Dillon Younger gave Colts Neck a 36-35 lead, its first of the game.
“Lukas was carrying us in the beginning, we all know that, but it was time for everyone else to start getting going,” Younger said.
“The pep talk was just… no one’s scared, this is your last game,” Younger said. “You just got to give it everything you got, so that’s what happened.”
Ramapo’s Finn Marrah closed out the third quarter with a buzzer-beating triple to give the Raiders a 38-37 lead heading into the fourth. Colts Neck played brilliant basketball in the final eight minutes, scoring 17 points. Younger had nine points, six rebounds and eight assists. His dish to Bryce Belcher for a layup gave Colts Neck a 43-41 lead. Younger went on to create a critical turnover that resulted in a Buoncore bucket to put the Cougars up four and Colts Neck never looked back.
Sloane stepped up at the free throw line, making three of four to finish with 20 points and 12 rebounds. The fourth quarter saw Colts Neck make the extra pass and play unselfishly, resulting in school history being made.
“I wish they would have started it from the beginning, but they keep waiting until the second half, it seems, the last couple weeks,” Jannarone said. “But again, it’s to them. It’s nothing different than I have been doing for 30-plus years. It’s just, they’re receptive, they trust each other, they believe in each other, they love each other, and that’s what we talked about at halftime – not too much Xs and Os, just trust, believe what got us here, and they did it.”
Colts Neck had home-court advantage throughout the opening rounds thanks to some upsets. The Cougars knocked off last year’s state finalist Freehold Boro by 12 and followed that with the school’s second sectional championship with a win over Ewing. In the state semis, Dillon Younger was the hero with the game-winning shot in a 47-45 victory over Ocean City.
The win at Rutgers over Ramapo gives the Cougars their first state basketball crown and the first boys champion in the Freehold Regional School District.
“They’re unbelievable in school,” Jannarone said. “They’re all top of their class, Honor Society kids. They’re always doing what’s right. That’s the reason this school showed up like it did today. (It) is because of them and their character. It’s just, I’ve used ‘surreal’ before; I’ve got to get a thesaurus, but it’s just fantastic.”
Throughout the magical run, Colts Neck’s Cougars Den student section packed the stands and made the road trip to Rutgers. It’s a moment the entire school community savored.
“We haven’t been here before as a program, so, it’s unheard of,” Sloane said. “We have the best student section. Everyone popped out, so shout out to them. This is everything I could have dreamed for, so it’s just amazing.”
The article originally appeared in the March 20 – 26, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
