The fourth-seeded Glasgow boys lost a nailbiter to an athletic Slater team 49-46 in Monday night’s opening round of the historic Glasgow Tournament.

Down by five with 16.8 seconds left, junior Jackson Meyer sank a pair of free throws to make it a one-score game. Senior Finn Johnson then made a steal as the Wildcats tried to get the ball across half-court. Following a Glasgow time-out, the Jackets inbounded the ball and tried to find Meyer or junior Bronson Foster on the perimeter. But neither could get an open shot. With the seconds ticking away, Meyer put the ball in the air. It sailed wide, allowing Slater to hold on to the three-point win and advance to the semifinals on Wednesday.

“They did a good job defending and we didn’t get a very good look,” Mick Cropp said about the final play of the game.

Cropp said his team missed too many opportunities throughout the game. “Shots that just didn’t go down for us. Open looks didn’t go down. But, kids scrapped and battled. We held them 15 points in the second half. So, really a good effort for them down the stretch.”

Slater jumped out to a quick 9-0 lead throughout the first half of the opening quarter. But Glasgow answered with an eight-point run before trailing by five entering the second quarter.

The Wildcats began to pull away in the second quarter on the athletic play by Slater senior Brandon Terrill, who scored 12 of his 19 first-half points in the second quarter, capped off with a pair of threes in the final minute and a half.

“He’s so good. He just can do it about any way what you want,” Cropp said about the Wildcat senior. “He can shoot them off from the outside, get to the basket, basically at will, steal the ball, run the floor, it doesn’t matter. He’s just a really, really phenomenally talented player.”

Glasgow held the Wildcats to 15 points in the second half but couldn’t even the score before the buzzer sounded.

The Jackets will face eight-seeded Marceline in the consolation semifinals at 9 p.m. on Wednesday. The winner advances to the consolation game on Saturday afternoon. The Tigers fell hard to top-seeded Harrisburg 68-28 in Monday’s opening round.