South Portland players Darius Johnson, Tom Maloji and Tristan Sanders walk away with the Class AA South championship plaque after the Red Riots beat Bonny Eagle, 49-34, on Saturday in Portland. Carl D. Walsh/Portland Press Herald

South Portland was in a dogfight with Bonny Eagle for two quarters in the Class AA South boys’ basketball final Saturday night.

Then the Red Riots changed the script.

Upping the defensive intensity and using traps, South Portland sped up the pace on the bigger Scots and scored nine quick points in a 19-3 third-quarter run that blew the game open and propelled the Red Riots to a 49-34 win at Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.

“We knew that we had to come in aggressive and play hard and bother their guards. That worked out really well,” said South Portland senior guard Manny Hidalgo.

South Portland (16-5), the No. 2 seed from the South, will face North No. 2 Windham (17-4) in the state championship game next Saturday at Cross Insurance Arena. South Portland won at Windham, 55-54, in the regular season. Windham is the defending state champion. South Portland, which won titles in 2022 and 2023, will make its fifth trip to the state final in nine seasons of Class AA basketball.

“I know that Windham has some dogs, so we’ll match up pretty well with them and it will be a fight,” Hidalgo said.

Hidalgo led South Portland with 22 points, six in the decisive third quarter, with five rebounds, three assists and three steals. Tom Maloji was a key contributor, making a tough bucket in the paint at the halftime buzzer for a 19-16 lead and scoring twice in the opening minutes of the third quarter, the first off a steal. Maloji finished with nine points. South Portland center Darius Johnson continued his strong tournament play with 14 points and eight rebounds

A year ago, South Portland suffered an uncharacteristic loss in the South quarterfinals. That created fuel for this year’s team, Johnson said.

“We didn’t even get to play at the (Cross Arena) last year. We played at our high school,” Johnson said. “So this is really meaningful for all of us. It’s a SoPo thing, winning championships and being in playoffs, but for a lot of us, it just hadn’t happened.”

Hidalgo was named the regional’s outstanding player.

No. 4 Bonny Eagle (9-12) was coming off an upset of No. 1 Thornton Academy in the semifinals when it was able to dominate down low, with 6-9 center Brody Taylor scoring 23 points. Against South Portland, Taylor scored six points, four coming after the game was decided. Bonny Eagle’s other big man, 6-8 Max Bouchard, scored four points.

Both Taylor and Bouchard had limited touches. South Portland’s on-the-ball pressure created turnovers and made entry passes difficult.

“I didn’t do a great job of getting us into different things to break (South Portland’s pressure). So, definitely got outcoached in that aspect,” said Bonny Eagle coach John Trull. “Couldn’t get anything going on offense because the pressure was bothering us.”

CJ Cooper led the Scots with 11 points, making three 3-pointers, including two in the second quarter that gave the Scots leads of 13-10 and 16-13.

At the opposite end, South Portland had repeated success attacking the glass against the taller Scots.

“We wanted to be aggressive,” said South Portland coach Kevin Millington. “We knew we were quicker, and if we got past the first guy and one of the bigs was out of there, we knew we had a shot but, yeah, I was a bit surprised in how we got there and set the tone that way.”

Hidalgo made several impressive buckets where he worked around the big men, floated the ball over their hands, or pulled up quick and made soft mid-range jumpers.

“Manny’s impossible 1-on-1. He’s even impossible in a zone. He’s a great player,” Trull said.

Looking ahead to the state final, there’s an interesting coach connection. Millington is a longtime teacher at Windham and a former Windham coach. Windham coach Chad Pulkkinen played for Millington. When Millington took the South Portland job, Pulkkinen got the Windham job.