When a program with as much tradition, history and success as the Columbia girl basketball team's sees its season end abruptly on its own home gym, it may be hard to look at it as a good year. But when you've been coaching as long as head coach Johanna Wright, you don't look to championships and wins and losses to define your success.

"I do look at the season as a success," the 26-year head coach said. "A successful season to me is kids being good students and doing well and moving on to college. Basketball is a means to an end."

The Cougar girls saw their streak of conference and state sectional championships come to an end this season. In the semifinals of the North II Group 4 state sectional championships, Columbia ran into a North Hunterdon team with a plan that has taken them all the way to the sectional title and now the Group 4 semifinals.

"There's nothing I could've done differently," Wright said. "The kids could've done something different, but it's over now."

In the Super Essex Conference American Division, the top division in the conference, Columbia finished second to a Shabazz team which has been nearly unstoppable this season. Three of Columbia's four losses this year came against the Lady Bulldogs. The Cougars finished with a 24-4 record.

Gone from the girls is the great back court of Brianna Thomas and Shaina Earle, as well as three-point specialist Melissa Carelli, paint players Chi Chi Ozuzu and Marcelyn Williams and backup guards India Crawley and Whitney Jackson.

"I'm going to remember their tenacious defense and their will to win," Wright said. "They won three conference championships in a row, they're going away with some championships. A lot of teams play and a lot of coaches coach and never win."

The returnees include standout freshman Jade Johnson-Walker and junior Gabby Jackson, who did a lot of everything for the Cougars this season as a starter.

"We've got a nice nucleus of kids back, and you look at the freshman class and we have a lot to be excited about," Wright said. "You can't count your chickens before they hatch. We look at summer and see how good the kids look."

Columbia employed a very balanced offensive attack this season, with no players averaging double digits in scoring or rebounding for the first time in Wright's career at CHS. To take it a step further, in 28 games this year, not one player scored more than 19 points.

"We're about balance," Wright said. "You find when you have a team of stars, you don't win very much."

The Cougars were also about defense this season, wreaking havoc on opposing guards all year long. With the loss of Earle and Thomas, Columbia's ability to apply as much pressure using the trap may be affected.

Shabazz will be the dragon the girls will have to slay should they hope to win the division next season. They'll almost definitely make the state playoffs, especially with the new state rules that put the top 16 teams in, as opposed to just teams over .500. Aside from that, as Wright intimated, everyone will have to wait and see.