MISSOULA — A third straight stop, a perfect outlet pass and Keifer Spohnhauer’s layup as time expired lifted the Glacier Wolfpack over Missoula Hellgate Tuesday, 45-43 in a State AA boys’ basketball play-in game.

It was a stunning finish to a physical, defensive game played on Hellgate’s home floor. The Knights were the second seed, and had Glacier on the ropes behind the play of Beckett Arthur and reserve Brogan Callaghan.

It was Arthur who drove off a screen for a shot in the paint with seven seconds left. He missed.

“I think Noah (Dowler) was tipping it up in the air,” said Spohnhauer. “Ty (Olsen) got the rebound.”

Olsen, a sophomore making his first start, hit the streaking Spohnhauer in stride.

“I was looking at the time,” the senior guard said. “I was like, ‘Oh, we’ve got to go.’ ‘’

He got the layup to go in front of Hellgate’s 6-foot-4 Josh Wade. All the Knights could do was take the ball out of the basket.

The seventh-seeded Pack, 7-8, heads to next week’s state tournament at Great Falls’ Four Seasons Arena for the first time since 2018; Tuesday marked the first miss for Hellgate (10-5) since 2009-10. Hellgate alum Jeff Hays became the Knights’ coach in 2010-11.

Many big plays were needed against a Hellgate squad that had beaten Glacier twice.

Dowler, another sophomore, had eight points. His bucket at 3:43 of the second quarter had Glacier up 18-11. Connor Sullivan hit two three-pointers and Colin Presnell hit one in the first half, with Presnell’s staking the Pack to a 24-22 halftime lead.

Jaxson Olsen scored eight of his 10 points in the fourth quarter, including two free throws with 3:14 left that put his team up 43-39.

More impressive was how the Pack – 11 players saw action – held up under Hellgate’s physicality. The bigger Knights surged late in the first half, closing to 21-20 on Josh Wade’s 3-pointer, then his dunk off a turnover.

Presnell answered that with his three.

After free throws from Wade and Callaghan tied it at 43-all with 2:29 left, Glacier got a good look from Ty Olsen, and a really good one from Presnell. Both missed.

“A sophomore,” Glacier coach Mark Harkins said of Olsen. “I love that confidence.

“The kids didn’t hold their heads down. We missed and they didn’t go, “Aaaaah.’ They went down and got a stop.”

“It’s all about the defensive end, man,” said Weston Price, who had four points. “We worked on that all week. We got a couple stops down low at the end, Keifer ran the court well and converted.

“We held Hellgate to 43 points. I don’t know that that’s happened this year. That’s insane.”

Callaghan and Arthur had 11 points each. Jaxson Olsen was the only Glacier player to reach double figures. Ty Olsen had three points but eight big rebounds, including the last one of the game after Hellgate had called time with 21 seconds remaining.

“I told the guys if we need a timeout, I’ll call it,” Harkins said of the final possession. “They executed perfectly. They took off, and I didn’t think it’d do any good to call a timeout, and it worked out.”

“We were just out there competing,” said Spohnhauer, who had seven points. “I thought we played our best defensive game, and we were all together as a team, and we knew we had a chance at winning this.”

Glacier 10 14 11 10 - 45

Hellgate 6 16 11 8 - 43

GLACIER – Jaxson Olsen 4-6 2-5 10, Weston Price 2-6 0-0 4, Noah Dowler 4-5 0-0 8, Keifer Spohnhauer 3-8 0-0 7, Ty Olsen 1-5 0-0 3, Connor Sullivan 2-2 0-0 6, Luke Bilau 0-1 0-0 0, Collin Presnell 2-3 2-2 7, Will Salonen 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler Hausmann 0-0 0-0 0, JT Allen 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-36 4-9 45.

HELLGATE – Josh Wade 3-8 2-2 9, Zach Johnson 1-1 0-0 2, Griffin Kinch 0-0 0-0 0, Beckett Arthur 5-12 0-0 11, Cayve LaRance 0-3 4-4 4, Ian Finch 2-3 1-2 6, Brogan Callaghan 4-8 3-3 11, Dre Bowie 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 15-36 10-11 43.

3-point goals – Glacier 5-16 (Sullivan 2-2, Spohnhauer 1-4, Presnell 1-1, J.Olsen 0-1, T.Olsen 1-3, Price 0-4, Bilau 0-1), Hellgate 3-7 (Arthur 1-2, Finch 1-1, Wade 1-1, Callaghan 0-1, LaRance 0-2). Rebounds - Glacier 24 (T.Olsen 8), Hellgate 15 (Callaghan 4). Fouls - Glacier 10, Hellgate 13. Fouled out - none. Steals - Glacier 4 (J.Olsen 2), Hellgate 10 (Kinch 3). Blocks - Glacier 2 (Price, Dowler). Turnovers - Glacier 13, Hellgate 9.