The Cougars jumped out to an 11-0 start on Thursday night at South Orange Middle School against the Westfield girls and never looked back. They cruised to a 57-35 win over the Blue Devil girls, eliminating them in the quarterfinals of the North II Group 4 state sectional championships.

"I thought they played really well tonight," said Columbia head coach Johanna Wright. "I was just impressed with overall game. This time of year, you ought to be playing like this."

Westfield turned the ball over in each of its first five positions and were out of the game before the end of the first quarter.

Up 21-10 headed into the second period, the Cougars allowed just three points in the quarter and scored 15 to take a commanding 36-13 lead into the break. The Cougars held the Blue Devils without a basket for nearly seven minutes in the second quarter, forcing Westfield to turn over the ball six times during that stretch. Westfield was 1-for-9 from the floor in the second quarter.

"We played hard. We came out and we go hard all of the time," said Westfield head coach Joe Marino. "We fell behind pretty quickly. We knew what they were going to do and we just worked hard to try and beat it, we just ran out of gas."

Columbia won the game in all phases, as was expected, with the Cougars coming in as heavy favorites. The Cougars used 13 steals behind a ferocious half court trap defense to force 27 Blue Devil turnovers. The Cougars turned it over 15 times.

"I felt great. We came out from the door, we did what we had to do and let them know that we should be making it further than where we went last year," said Columbia senior guard Brianna Thomas. "Everybody played their part on defense, everybody did what they had to do on offense and it just all equaled together."

On the glass, Columbia had the rebounding edge 25-16, and also connected on 21-of-42 shots from the floor, including 14-of-24 in the first half. They were led in scoring by Thomas with 10 points and Jade Johnson-Walker, also with 10 points, to go along with her seven boards.

While Columbia was the best team on the court, perhaps the best player was Westfield's Diana Venezia, who accounted for more than half of the Blue Devils' offense. Venezia led all scorers with 20 points, and also snared a team-high six boards.

"Diana always plays tough, she's one of our better players. She's got herself a free ride to the University of North Carolina Willingboro," Marino said. "She's just a hard nose player.

Westfield began the season 2-6, and an as an afterthought in Union County and in the Watchung American Division. But the Blue Devils responded with a run of 13 wins in their final 16 games, a third-place finish in the division and fourth in Union County. Their final record is 15-9.

"I'm very proud of them, because in the beginning of the season, everybody had us down for dead," Marino said. "They knew they could do it from day one and everyone else was counting us out.

The Cougar girls advanced to the state sectional semifinals, where they will be at home again facing 18-2 North Hunterdon on Saturday.