MCMINNVILLE — A 16-point deficit at halftime was too big of a hole to dig out for No. 9 Mountain View High against No. 1 Silverton in the Class 5A girls basketball quarterfinals Thursday afternoon.

Despite a rally in the second half, the Foxes advanced past the Cougars with a 53-40 win at Linfield University.

“There were just some defensive breakdowns in the first half that got us in such a big hole,” said Mountain View coach Jon Corbett. “We knew that this was going to come down to defense. It is always hard to score points at the state tournament. Defensively we just had a few too many breakdowns.”

In the first half, Silverton (22-4 overall) proved why it was the tournament’s top overall seed, turning a 17-10 lead after the first quarter into a 33-17 lead at halftime. The Foxes’ star player Kyleigh Brown scored 10 of her game-high 26 points in the first half.

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When the Foxes’ lead grew to 19 early in the third quarter, Mountain View (19-7) came alive and started chipping away at the lead. And it started on the defensive end.

The Cougars started the second half on a 13-5 run to trim the lead down to single digits.

“We just refocused on the defensive end,” Corbett said. “We had to get stops. Yeah we needed to score, but I wasn’t worried about us scoring. Defense is what we came out and refocused on.”

But the Foxes would respond with a 7-2 run to close out the third quarter to build a 13-point lead going into the final quarter, which proved to be too big of a margin for the Cougars to overcome.

Mountain View was led by senior Avery Andrews who finished with 14 points, nine rebounds, two steals and a block earning her Player of the Game honors. Senior Kasey Booster finished with 15 points, five rebounds and four assists while senior Lidia Jacobsen finished with nine points on three made 3-pointers.

Mountain View will play in the consolation round Friday morning at 9 a.m.