Winning championships doesn't get old at any level.

The Kankakee County Soldiers are one win away from their fourth consecutive title after a 132-124 victory over Chicago Redline in the Independent Basketball Association-Premier Basketball League spring season playoffs Friday night at Legends Sportsplex in Bourbonnais.

The championship game will be at home next Friday against the winner of Kenosha and Gary, who face off Saturday night.

"You can never win enough," Soldiers forward Billy Rush said "That feeling, no matter how many times you get it, it's an unforgettable feeling. It's something you always want to feel."

The Soldiers (12-3) looked sloppy in the first half but managed to turn things around immediately in the third quarter, going on an 11-0 run to turn a six-point deficit into a five-point lead.

Rush nailed a 3-pointer on the opening possession, and Billy Baptist, who had 21 points, had a pair of baskets to highlight the run.

"Talking in the locker room and everybody staying on the same page," Rush said. "Don't let the game and what was going on get to us."

The contest was close for the majority of the second half when Baptist made a spectacular move driving through two Redline defenders and finishing with his left hand to give the Soldiers a seven-point lead with just more than a minute to go.

Ryan Edwards led the Soldiers with 29 points, and Soldiers coach Barry Bradford credited his team's defense for the second-half turnaround.

"We went into the locker room and talked about the fact that we gave up 60 points in the first half," Bradford said. "We still gave up 60 points with a terrible fourth quarter, but, in the third quarter, we played defense as a unit, moved the ball as a unit, and that was big for us across the board."

While the second half went well, the Soldiers struggled for the vast majority of the first half, falling down six points after acrobatic 3-pointer at the buzzer.

The Soldiers turned the ball over several times, leading to a 9-0 run giving the Redline a 59-51 lead.

Former Indiana University forward Deshaun Thomas, who played at Westinghouse High School in Chicago, was ejected from the game early in the second quarter for committing two flagrant fouls, leaving Chicago one less big man.

"If he gets position on the block he can be a problem," Rush said. "It was one less big man we had to work against."

They don't know who they'll face yet, but Rush and the Soldiers know they'll have to improve during next weekend's championship game if they want to take home another crown.

"We need to come out from the gate. Come out locked in defensively and run our offense," Rush said. "If we run our offense we can get anything we want."