Two men have been sentenced to long prison terms in the shooting death of 14-year-old Nazerah Bugg.

“This would have been her year to go to college,” said Bridget Arrick, the teen’s aunt. “She didn’t get there because a bullet pierced her heart.”

Bugg was shot in September 2014 near basketball courts in Paterson. She had gone to a restaurant to buy sodas with a friend. The friend was also shot, but survived. Police say that the girls were not the intended targets.

The men convicted admitted to police that they drove to the scene to avenge the shooting of a fellow gang member that day. They both denied that they fired any shots.

“They shot them down like dogs in the street. Little girls who were no threat to them,” Arrick said.

Jeavonte Dennis was sentenced Friday to 45 years in prison for murder. 

Nyje Johnson was sentenced to 22 years in prison for aggravated manslaughter and attempted murder of a friend of Bugg. He was found not guilty in June on a murder charge in Bugg's death.

Johnson apologized to Bugg’s family during the sentence hearing.

“I’m really sorry for your loss and the pain and suffering you’ve been going through,” he said.

Bugg’s family came to the hearing wearing T-shirts demanding justice. The say that the teen was a promising student who one day dreamed of being a professional basketball player.

Five other people, including two gang leaders charged with ordering the shooting, are awaiting trial.