On a night of celebrations at Glacier High School, the visiting team had the loudest cheers at the end of the night.

Missoula Hellgate (12-8 overall, 7-5 Western AA) stymied the Wolfpack (11-8, 5-6) for long stretches in a 50-42 victory and remained in the hunt for a bye into the girls state basketball tournament, moving into second place in Western AA in the process.

Glacier, which celebrated its senior night before the game and honored the school’s 2015 state championships at halftime, couldn’t find a rhythm in the contest.

The Wolfpack stepped out to an early lead by feeding junior Nikki Krueger in the post, getting a pair of buckets to take a 4-0 advantage.

That was all erased in one possession, when Hellgate junior Sydney Riddle sunk a 3-pointer from the corner while taking a foul on her follow through. After a made free-throw, the Knights tied the game in one fell swoop.

Hellgate shot the lights out from deep in the first quarter, making its first three 3-point attempts to take a 10-6 lead. Another 3 in the final minute gave the Knights a 15-10 lead after the first quarter.

At the same time, Glacier struggled to find the net.

The Wolfpack, which struggled to get star point guard Hailee Bennett space against Hellgate’s box-and-one defense, scored its first 10 points from the paint but ran into trouble getting the ball to the post. Glacier went scoreless for more than five minutes of game time, allowing the Knights to rip off a 13-0 run and take a 23-10 lead.

The tides turned in the final six minutes of the half. Glacier’s Hailey Ruggles nailed a 3-pointer to get the Wolfpack out of its funk and the offense found some space to hit shots.

Glacier closed the half on a 12-1 run to enter halftime trailing just 24-22, then scored the first six points of the third quarter to take a 28-24 lead. The Wolfpack seemed to have returned serve on its earlier malaise by holding Hellgate without a point for more than eight minutes of play.

Then foul trouble started to creep in.

Glacier didn’t commit many fouls, but sent Hellgate to the line when it did. The Knights, who shot 84 percent as a team from the free-throw line in the game, made 8 of 9 free throws to close the third quarter as the Wolfpack went through another drought, regaining the lead and pulling out to a 39-32 lead by the close of the frame.

Glacier crept back into the contest in the fourth, trailing 40-38 with 4:32 to play, but couldn’t get enough on offense, falling behind as Hellgate held the ball and made its final six free throws.

“They came out with a great game plan and they shot the ball well,” Glacier coach Kris Salonen said. “We knew we couldn’t foul them and we did. They shot the ball amazing.

“I thought we played well and gave ourselves a chance. We just started fouling too early in the second half. They were at the free-throw line from then on out.”

Krueger had 14 points to lead Glacier and Ruggles finished with 10 points.

The loss leaves the Wolfpack’s playoff fate in the hands of its opponents. Glacier, which closes its season tonight with the crosstown game against last-place Flathead, is in a mess of teams around .500 in conference looking to get home-court advantage for a play-in game. Where the Wolfpack ends up relies on the results of not only its own contest, but those of the games between Missoula Big Sky at Helena Capital and Missoula Sentinel at Helena High. Glacier could end up in any spot from third through sixth.

Tonight’s crosstown basketball game against Flathead is scheduled to tip at 6 p.m. at Glacier.

Hellgate 15 9 15 11 — 50

Glacier 10 12 10 10 — 42

HELLGATE — Darby Henthorn 1-3 4-6 6, Claudia Wiese 0-1 4-4 4, Kylie McWilliams 2-5 1-2 6, Syd Riddle 3-7 5-5 12, Katie Stahl 4-7 4-4 15, Kaci Paffhausen 2-5-3-4 7. Totals: 12-28 21-25 50.

GLACIER — Taylor Salonen 1-7 0-0 3, Christine Connolly 1-2 0-0 2, Nikki Krueger 6-7 2-6 14, Hailee Bennett 1-4 0-0 3, Hailey Ruggles 4-7 0-0 10, Ahna Kreitinger 0-2 0-0 0, Brynn McChesney 0-1 0-0 0, Anna Schrade 2-4 0-0 4, Courtney Mitchell 2-3 0-0 4, Kali Gulick 1-3 0-0 2. Totals: 18-40 2-6 42.

3-point goals—Hellgate 5-10 (Stahl 3-5, Riddle 1-2, McWilliams 1-2, Henthorn 0-1), Glacier 4-10 (Ruggles 2-4, Bennett 1-1, Salonen 1-5). Rebounds—Hellgate 13 (Stahl 4), Glacier 19 (Salonen 8). Assists—Hellgate 8 (Henthorn 5), Glacier 17 (Salonen 6, Bennett 6). Blocks—Hellgate 2 (Stahl 2), Glacier 2 (Krueger, Bennett). Steals—Hellgate 9 (Stahl 3), Glacier 7 (Krueger 2). Total fouls—Hellgate 12, Glacier 16. Fouled out—none. Technical fouls—none.