CALDWELL -- Dietrich head coach Slade Dill realized right away.
Understood his team wanted it. Wanted to fight for a state championship. Wanted to roll in the semifinals and his players exhibited that immediately.
Top-seeded Dietrich dominated wire-to-wire for a 65-57 win over No. 5 Garden Valley in an Idaho 1A state tournament semifinal Friday at Caldwell High School.
"We knew what they (Garden Valley) had and we knew it was going to be a dogfight," Dill told the Times-News. "My kids came out and they performed in the first half."
Dietrich will face No. 6 Challis in the 1A state championship at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Nampa's Ford Idaho Center, which marks Dietrich's second state finals appearance since 2021, when it finished runners-up.
Garden Valley will see No. 2 Rockland in the third place game at noon Saturday at Caldwell High School.
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It's the fifth straight year with a finalist from the Sawtooth Conference.
Live updates: Dietrich into 1A final, 3 Magic Valley teams set for semis at Idaho high school boys hoops championships
Check this story throughout the day for the latest updates at the Idaho high school boys basketball championships.
It will represent a rematch as Dietrich stopped Challis 78-73 on Dec. 6. The Vikings ride a four-game win streak into Saturday.
No. 1 Dietrich stops No. 8 Coeur du Christ in Idaho 1A boys quarterfinal
Dietrich plays best when it plays free and fun. A loose, up-tempo pace full of Hail Mary heaves to the open guy and deep 3-pointers when the opportunity arises.
"They (The Vikings) want everything," Dill said. "They go for every board. They go for every steal. They go for every loose ball situation. They don't stop. They just work their butts off."
But so does Dill and his squad, especially for late head coach and Dill's father, Wayne, who died in summer 2023.
"We were one of his last groups that he taught so it would be really big to come in and get something done for him," Corrd Wells told the Times-News.
Dietrich's do-it-all star Connor Perkins paced the Blue Devils with 17 points and 14 rebounds. Wells added 15 points while Chase Norman contributed 16 points with seven rebounds.
Brody Torgerson registered nine points with 13 rebounds.
"I love it," Norman told the Times-News. "I love the fast pace. I love being able to shoot and have the green light to shoot. I love being able to have that and just that speed because it makes the game a lot faster pace. A lot funner, in my opinion."
The well-known Dietrich run and gun style, something the elder Dill perfected, zapped the Wolverines early. Garden Valley guys gasping for air, hands on knees and bewildered looks of, 'What just happened?'
The Wolverines used more than seven minutes before their first points and shot 23.8% from the field in the first half.
Dietrich rode a 40% first half 3-point clip to a 40-17 halftime lead.
The Wolverines, who maximized turnovers and fastbreak opportunities, established a 6-2 run to start the third.
Dietrich burned a timeout as Slade Dill repeatedly instructed his squad to relax.
After all, relaxation in the chaos of Dietrich's high-powered, sometimes impulsive offense, is the Blue Devils' way.
Case in point late in the third quarter when Torgerson, with Dietrich up 20, heaved a Hail Mary pass that deflected off a Wolverine defender and out of bounds.
"It is just all of us knowing what we want to do," Perkins said Thursday. "It is just all of our styles. We are all fast. We are all athletic. We have a good system put in for us to execute that and just go down the floor and fly."
Garden Valley pushed as close as seven points before Perkins and Co. separated with well-timed shots.
Trevor Corn paced Garden Valley with 15 points while Conor Ross secured 14 points with 11 rebounds. Madix Miller bagged 11 points.
"We are prepared," Norman said. "I feel we are very prepared and we just need to have the mentality. We can't overlook them (Challis) or underlook them or anything like that. We have to just come out and play as hard as we can."
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