SALISBURY, Mo. - The Slater Wildcats had the Chamois Pirates exactly where they wanted them.
Aaron Brandt, Chamois' 6-foot-6 standout senior, had just fouled out with 3:03 left in the game and the Pirates were trailing by three points. It appeared the game would be the Wildcats' for the taking.
Charles Roberts had a different plan in mind.
Roberts scored nine of his 13 points after Brandt fouled out, including the winning 3-pointer with :01.1 remaining, to lift Chamois to a 51-48 win against Slater in the Class 1 quarterfinal round at Salisbury High School.
"I knew that shot would be wide-open," Roberts, a 6-foot-2 senior, said of his winning 3. "I let it fly and it just felt so good. I knew it was going in."
The victory sends Chamois to its first Final Four in program history.
"The Final Four is awesome, it's a great accomplishment," Chamois coach Kyle Burkett said.
Keegan Zdybel hit both free throws after Brandt's fifth foul to extend the Slater lead to 43-40 with 3:03 to play. Zdybel would score the Wildcats' last eight points of the game.
Chamois didn't panic, and as the Slater crowd erupted after the change of momentum, Roberts silenced them with a 3-pointer on the other end to tie the game at 43.
"I wanted to take over," said Roberts, who missed his first four attempts from 3 but made his last two tries.
On Chamois' next possession, Roberts scored a 3-point play with 2:31 left to give the Pirates the lead again. After a Slater turnover, Kyle Bockting made a pair of free throws with 1:27 left to cap an 8-0 Chamois run, making the score 48-43.
Zdybel knocked down a deep 3-pointer, and after Chamois missed on the front end of a 1-and-1, the Slater sophomore made a pair of free throws with :58 left to tie the game at 48.
Chamois would hold the ball for the last shot. Roberts' 3-point look wasn't the Pirates first option, however.
"That was the second part to the play," Burkett said. "The first option wasn't there for the layup, but that was the second option."
Dylan Warren set the screen for Roberts, who had a wide-open look from the right wing and swished home the shot.
"It couldn't have happened to a better player," Burkett said of Roberts.
Slater called a timeout after Roberts' 3, but the Wildcats' full-court in-bounds pass went untouched out of bounds. Chamois in-bounded the ball and ran out the final second for the win.
This wasn't the first time Chamois has had to play without its all-stater. Brandt missed time during the regular season after suffering an ankle injury against Cuba during the Belle Tournament. The Pirates struggled in his absence, losing that game and then their next three contests.
"We played four games without him earlier (this year), and we did well in those games," Burkett said. " We had the lead in almost every one of those games and couldn't finish down the stretch.
"Tonight, the guys stepped up and they did it."
Brandt scored Chamois' first seven points and put the Pirates ahead 11-6 after one quarter. He had just two points in the second quarter, but his teammates carried much of the workload in those eight minutes.
Bockting added four points in the second quarter and Devin Warren knocked down a 3. Anthony Keilholz made all three of his shot attempts in the quarter, including a putback at the buzzer to give Chamois a 26-21 halftime lead.
"I had no complaints in the first half," Burkett said.
Slater had a scare midway through the third quarter. Senior guard Keshawn White, who suffered a right knee injury earlier this season, slipped and injured his ankle at the 3:56 mark. The Wildcats' go-to player was helped off the court with his team down 30-26.
White's teammates answered the call in his absence, just as Chamois would later on, as the Wildcats outscored the Pirates 7-2 the rest of the quarter to lead 33-32 heading into the fourth.
White returned to the game to start the fourth, dishing a pass to JaKobie Breshears for a layup and then scoring a 3-point play to put Slater ahead 38-36 with 5:02 to play.
"He is so fast and so good around the basket," Burkett said of White, who finished with 10 points and nine rebounds. "He's quick and athletic. He's a handful, you stand in the lane and you still can't keep him from getting to the rim."
Brandt led Chamois with a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds. Bockting added 12 points and eight rebounds.
Breshears led Slater with 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Zdybel also reached double figures with 10 points for the Wildcats, who fell short of their final Final Four appearance since 1984.
"You can't hang your head about winning a district title and making it to the quarterfinals," said Dillon Yung, Slater's first-year head coach who went to the Class 1 Final Four in 2016 and '17 as an assistant coach at Glasgow. "We just wanted to give ourselves a chance at the end, and unfortunately it just didn't go our way."
Slater, a No. 3 seed in its district, finished the season with a 17-13 record.
"They are a very solid team," Burkett said. "They're much better than their record shows. It's no surprise they made it here."
Chamois (21-9) will face second-ranked Eminence (30-1) in the Class 1 semifinals at 6:20 p.m. Friday at JQH Arena in Springfield.
Eminence defeated No. 4 Advance 78-62 in Saturday's quarterfinal round.
Chamois isn't looking ahead to that next game just yet. Burkett and the Pirates are ready to sit back and reflect on the past few weeks, which have felt like a whirlwind.
"They've been a blast," Burkett said. "Other than the lack of sleep and the stress, words don't describe it."