Sunday’s finale to the NJSIAA basketball state championships featured no shortage of thrills, with four more teams securing championship glory on Rutgers’ home court at Jersey Mike’s Arena. Check out the results from an action-packed day from the boys’ and girls’ Group III and I state finals.
Intenzo’s Double-Double Leads Moorestown to First Ever Girls’ State Title
The Moorestown Quakers are not a traditional basketball powerhouse. The 2026 season marked the first time the Burlington County school had ever even won a sectional championship, let alone reached a state championship game. But on Sunday, the Quakers put together a spectacular wire-to-wire performance against a favored Old Tappan Golden Knights team. First year head coach Jeb Howley’s group had all the answers early, and pulled away late in the third quarter to cement a history-making 50-37 victory for Moorestown High School.
Though it was Moorestown’s first trip to the state championships, it was Old Tappan who looked shaky off the hop. Coach Brian Dunn’s team scuffled mightily from the field, going just 1-of-10 in the first quarter, and 4-of-21 (19%) in the first half. Truthfully, Moorestown didn’t fare much better—they shot 6-of-23 in the half (26%)—but set the tone in the opening stanza by going on a 14-0 run.
Top-scoring Quaker Analyse Intenzo showed off her range by draining a 25-foot three pointer, and she led all scorers with 10 points at the intermission. A few well-timed three-balls from NVOT’s Nina Caunedo gave the Bergen County squad a pulse, but they’d have to buck up their ideas on offense to catch the Quakers on offense.
The Quakers didn’t let up. Their starting five, featuring Intenzo, Renee Takla, Tess Murphy, and Julia Blong, kept the pressure on the Knights every defensive possession. Old Tappan found themselves unable to run out in transition or access the paint. They never lost confidence in shooting from three, but their attempts just weren’t falling.
Late in the third, the Quakers effectively put the game to bed. In the final minute Blong got an open look from three and connected to extend their lead to 16 points. Immediately afterward, Intenzo picked up a steal, ran the floor and banked in a tough layup to give Moorestown a 38-20 advantage after three quarters.
The fourth was a long denouement, in which the Quakers kept their adversaries at arm’s reach and finished a 13-point victory; ever-so-slightly bigger than the 12-point advantage they built in the first. Intenzo finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds, a spectacular end to her varsity career. With the victory, this girls’ squad joined the boys’ teams of 1958, 1959, and 2019 in Moorestown’s pantheon of basketball state champions.
Ocean City Buckles Down in Fourth, Outlasts Colonia for First Championship in 62 Years
Sporting a Hawaiian shirt and khakis, veteran coach John Bruno must have felt substantially less relaxed than your typical summer vacationer as he watched his Ocean City Red Raiders battle to the finish line against the Colonia Patriots in the 2026 Group 3 basketball championship game. But Bruno, who wears the shirt to honor an old friend, got a front-row seat to a spectacular final five minutes from his group, who finished on a 9-0 run to secure Ocean City’s first boys’ basketball championship since 1964.
Colonia came out aggressive in the first quarter, claiming 4 steals and turning some of them into transition points. Top scorer Jayce Rodriguez got the party started with 8 early points, including an emphatic dunk which got the Patriot faithful roaring. Josh Lenko led an Ocean City response to make it a one-possession margin at the end of the quarter. Beautiful passing was the name of the game for Ocean City: they served 10 assists in the first half, with four dimes coming from senior Dean Lappin.
In the final minute of the half senior Luke Tjoumakaris hit a transition layup to give Ocean City their first lead of the game, then repeated the act in the dying seconds after a response from Rodriguez. Tjoumakaris (11) and Rodriguez (10) were their respective teams’ scoring leaders at the halftime break, with the Red Raiders up 28-27.
The pace slowed down in the third quarter, but the greater in-game trend held. Colonia pulled ahead, then Ocean City found a prompt response. The Patriots crept back on top at the end of the third to lead 39-38 at the break, but Josh Lenko got the Red Raiders in an early fourth-quarter groove with two huge three-pointers. This time Colonia had the response, and Rodriguez was the first to 20 points, but Lenko soon got to 21 with a tough layup to force a Colonia timeout in a 44-44 tie with just under five minutes remaining in regulation.
The margin for error was incredibly thin—in the end, all it took was a few mistakes. Colonia got careless with the basketball in the late stages, and the Red Raiders took full advantage. Dean Lappin grabbed a contested layup off a steal, then a few possessions later Alec Bell extended the lead with another opportunistic bucket. Tighe Olek grabbed a third steal for the Raiders before burying two free throws to give Ocean City a seven-point lead with a minute left.
The Patriots fought to stay in the game, firing a bevy of shots which stubbornly rattled off the cup. Finally the ball bounced out towards the baseline, and as Clyne raced to save the ball, Olek leapt into the picture. He brilliantly tossed the ball off Clyne and out of bounds to give possession back to Ocean City.
Lenko finished the game with a game-high 24 points. Tjoumakaris registered a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Olek had five assists; Lappin had six; Ocean City as a whole had 17. That unselfish playstyle carried them to victory against a Colonia squad who matched them stride-for-stride until the very end.
Arts Topples Reigning Champs New Providence for First Championship
It’s true that basketball is a sport in which individual players can carry a team to greatness. But in the hyper-competitive landscape of New Jersey high school hoops, depth wins the day. Despite a stellar 22-point performance from New Providence senior Addie Conover, the Arts Jaguars were able to find more answers from their high-powered offense to dethrone the Pioneers and become first-time state champions in Group I.
The first quarter was punch-counterpunch for the two combatants, as Arts responded to a 7-0 opening run from the Pioneers with a 12-0 run of their own. While the Jaguars may have shown some opening jitters in their first ever state title game, they quickly shrugged them off. Senior guard Nilah Rivera set the tone as she usually does for Arts with 8 first half points.
On the other end, Annie Conover showed why she’s one of the most dangerous players in the state in the second quarter and finished the first half with 15 points and 6 rebounds. However, the Pioneers struggled to find much scoring beyond Conover. Arts spread the wealth around, with six different scorers and 10 bench points—including 7 from junior NicoleRai Bogan.
In the third quarter, New Providence’s top players began to get into foul trouble, intensifying the difficulty of the tightrope act they’d need to pull to get back into the game. They started to draw closer, but just as they did, Arts responded with a flurry of points. The Jaguars led by eight after three periods, and in the fourth, they would show the kind of toughness which cements championships.
Senior Harmoni Burgess only had two points in the first half, but she ignited the Jags in the second. Once she started to drive into the paint with purpose, it became clear that New Providence had no answer for her. It wasn’t even that Burgess was hitting her shots consistently—but even if she didn’t, she was likely headed to the line. Burgess sunk 8 of her points from the charity stripe and used her bulldog two-way play to defang the Pioneers, who never managed to sufficiently diversify their scoring beyond Conover. Arts outscored New Providence 16-11 in the third, then 16-12 in the fourth to secure the first basketball championship in Arts’ history, boys’ or girls’.
Shabazz vs. Thrive Charter
The finale to the 2026 NJSIAA basketball state championships featured the toughest battle of them all. Malcolm X. Shabazz and defending Group I champion Thrive Charter battled to the final whistle, but the Bulldogs eked out victory to secure the seventh boys’ state title in school history. Junior Elijah Colon led all scorers with 22 points, including a couple of clutch late shots. And sophomore Anthony Blackmon, in the middle of the action for Shabazz all season long, hit the final two free throws to complete the paperwork.
This game had a collegiate atmosphere, with massive throngs of fans from both sides filling up the barn. You could count on a deafening noise from one side of the court every time a player made a big shot or came away with a key steal. Shabazz got off to the better start defensively, and were able to generate easy makes in transition. Colon led first-half scorers with 10 points as the Bulldogs led by five at the end of the first.
But Thrive Charter punched back in the second. Tyler Hammond got the Titans faithful on their feet with a big three early on, then the team turned to their depth. Javion Cesar-Jones, Teriyon Page, and Marjon Skillman each accounted for four points in the half—but Hammond led the charge with eight. After two full quarters of play, this thrilling finale was tied at 25.
The hectic pace and raucous crowd noise seemed to hamper both teams’ decision making, as they combined for 33 turnovers in the first three quarters. Neither side was particularly effective at cashing them into points; often a takeaway on one end would be answered by a steal on the other. Both teams had their share of misses from the foul line, and they shot virtually identically from the field after three. Shabazz shot 14-of-33; Thrive shot 13-of-30. A late lay-in from Colon made the score 36-all with one full quarter remaining.
The Titans got the first bucket of the fourth from junior Sean Turner, but the Newark school’s fans burst into cheers when Colon and sophomore Anthony Blackmon grabbed some quick buckets on the fast break. After that, though, both teams entered lengthy funks. After a steal-and-score from Thrive’s Teriyon Page tied the score at 40, catastrophe struck for the Bulldogs with three minutes left. On a contested play, senior Umar Sannor went down hard with a leg injury, and had to be helped to the sideline.
From there, chaos ensued. Shabazz got a huge three from Colon to go up five points, then allowed a basket inside. After a timeout, an ill-advised pass on the inbound led to a Thrive takeaway, which netted them a point on a foul shot. The next trip down the floor for Colon netted two points on a goaltend, but Turner replied with a huge three to cut the score to 49-48 with ten seconds. The next inbound pass resulted in a frantic battle for the loose ball, but the Bulldogs somehow managed to keep possession by the skin of their teeth. Two Blackmon makes from the foul line later, the Bulldogs returned to championship glory for the first time since 2010.
