MERIDIAN – The Sugar-Salem boys basketball team is headed back to the 3A state championship game.

The Diggers held off an upstart Filer team 48-36 on Friday night, pulling away in the second half to advance to their second consecutive title game.

The Diggers (19-5) will face Kimberly for a shot to repeat as 3A state champions Saturday at 3:50 p.m. in the Ford Idaho Center.

Kimberly beat Sugar-Salem twice during the regular season, including 69-53 on Feb. 1. Since that loss, the Diggers have won eight straight games.

After a slow start on Friday in which Sugar-Salem led 19-18 at the half, but was less than sharp offensively, the Diggers finally gained some momentum.

“We just weren’t putting it together offensively,” Tanner Harris said. “Our defense was good but we finally started getting things going.”

Three of Filer’s first four baskets were 3-pointers but the shots stopped falling. The Wildcats (11-15) missed their last nine 3-pointers of the half and the Diggers didn’t help their cause, finishing 1 of 9 from behind the arc.

But Sugar-Salem began attacking the rim more in the second half and dominating the rebounding edge. Filer continued to launch 3-pointers, but never found the range. Sugar-Salem built its lead to 31-23 after the third quarter and was up by 12 points in the fourth.

“We just made some adjustments,” Sugar-Salem coach Shawn Freeman said. “They did a good job trying to take our best shooters away.”

The Diggers outrebounded the Wildcats 44-26, including grabbing 16 on the offensive end. Harris had 12 rebounds, seven coming on the offensive end. He also led the team with 10 points and five assists.

Filer was unranked in the final state media poll and was trying to reach its first state title game.

Sugar-Salem, ranked No. 3 in the state media poll, looks for the repeat and seventh title overall, but Kimberly (21-1) will test the Digger defense with guard Dawson Cummins, the reigning 3A All-Idaho Player of the Year.

SUGAR-SALEM 48, FILER 36

Filer 11 7 5 13 –36

Sugar-Salem 11 8 12 17 –48

FILER – Teagan Anderson 5, Austin Jarolimek 14, Austin Perkins 1, Miguel Perez 10, Jake Bowman 2.

SUGAR-SALEM – Crew Clark 6, Tanner Harris 10, Braxton Ostermiller 4, Keayen Nead 4, Hadley Miller 9, Sam Parkinson 4, Rylan Bean 6, Kyler Handy 5.