Shaking off a sluggish first half, the No. 1 Glacier boys made up 15 points in eight minutes, but couldn’t finish out the comeback, losing to Helena Capital 58-52 in boys basketball on Saturday at Glacier High School.

The Wolfpack (10-2 overall, 3-1 Western AA) finally got things going with two minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Trailing 45-27 after letting up back-to-back 3-pointers, Glacier wing Reid Siderius answered with a 3 that seemed to breathe some life into his team.

Much more aggressive, the Wolfpack went to the basket on three straight possessions, coming out with six points and a pair of missed free throws, cutting the lead to 11 points by the close of the third.

“We were down by a lot,” Glacier guard Matt Peters said.

“We had to do something to get back in the game. The big man picked it up.”

With its confidence back, Glacier refocused on getting the ball down low to 7-footer Ryan Edwards and pressuring on defense.

The Wolfpack opened the fourth on a 11-3 run, cutting the lead to 51-48 with nearly three minutes still on the clock.

“They didn’t let us get out and run very well,” Glacier coach Mark Harkins said.

“If we were going to go half court, we needed to get the ball to Ryan ... When we needed a big bucket, they found him and he finished for us.”

But Capital tightened up and Glacier got the ball into Edwards for just one more bucket.

The Bruins (7-4, 4-1) packed in their defense and forced the Wolfpack to shoot its way to victory. Glacier struggled in that area, finishing just 13 percent from 3-point land.

While Glacier tried to find its range, Capital closed the game at the free-throw line, nailing five straight freebies in the final minute to extend its lead to 58-50.

The Bruins shot 67 percent from the line to just 35 for Glacier.

“They shot the lights out,” Harkins said.

“They shot 66 percent from behind the arc, 57 percent from the floor. Those are pretty telling stats.”

The Wolfpack couldn’t get anything right in the first half, unable to move against Capital’s stifling zone and unable to get out and run with the Bruins, who got back quickly on defense.

Glacier shot just 36 percent from the floor in the half and only made two free throws, trailing 33-19 at the break.

“We came out and didn’t execute,” Edwards said.

“We didn’t hedge ball screens, we didn’t work hard on defense. In the second half we went out there and got after them. We came up a little bit short. So next time we’ll have to do that the entire game.”

Edwards finished with a game-high 21 points and eight rebounds. Evan Epperly had 11 points and two steals for the Wolfpack.

Hunter Beto scored 18 points, hitting a pair of 3s and going 8 for 10 from the free-throw line, to lead Capital.

Carson Dummer had a big game in the post, going 6 for 9 from the floor and 4 for 5 from the line to score 16 points.

Glacier will have a short weekend to recover, with a crosstown matchup with Flathead (8-3, 3-1) on Tuesday.

The Braves have been one of the best teams in the state this season and are tied atop the conference with one loss.

Capital 19 14 15 10 — 58

Glacier 11 8 18 15 — 52

CAPITAL — Kyle Nickol 2-5 0-0 5, Kyle Harrington 0-4 1-5 1, Hunter Beto 4-5 8-10 18, Levi Dawes 1-2 0-0 2, Carson Dummer 6-9 4-5 16, Keeley Larson 3-4 1-1 8, Aaron Gilman 3-4 0-0 8. Totals: 19-33 14-21 58.

GLACIER — Evan Epperly 5-10 1-3 11, Logan Iverson 2-8 0-0 4, Matt Peters 0-6 2-4 2, Ryan Edwards 9-12 3-6 21, Reid Siderius 3-4 0-0 8, Bryan Michaels 3-4 0-2 6. Totals: 22-49 6-17 52.

3-pointers — Capital 6-9 (Beto, Gilman 2), Glacier 2-15 (Siderius 2); Rebounds — Capital 27 (Dummer, Dawes 6), Glacier 24 (Edwards 8); Assists — Capital 8 (Harrington, Beto, Gilman 2), Glacier 16 (Kyle Griffith 6); Blocks — Capital 2 (Dummer 2), Glacier 2 (Peters, Siderius); Steals — Capital 7 (Beto, Dawes 2), Glacier 8 (Griffith, Epperly, Iverson 2); Fouls — Capital 14, Glacier 20; Technical fouls — none; Fouled out — none.