FOREST GROVE — Everything seemed to be going according to plan for the Seaside Seagulls at the start of Thursday’s 4A state quarterfinal game.

Despite Cascade having a potent scoring duo with Kaiden Ford and Landon Knox, the Seagulls had an advantage inside. After seeing league rival St. Helens give the Cougars trouble in the first round of the tournament, Thursday’s game seemed winnable for Seaside.

Behind a strong start from Barett Blodgett, Jake White and Austin Palmer inside, the Seagulls built an early 9-3 lead.

But that was as good as it got.

Cascade put together its own 9-3 run to tie the game at 12 after the first quarter.

Then, the Seagulls put just one point on the board in the second quarter to fall behind by 10 at halftime.

That extended 22-4 run by the Cougars in the first half was pivotal, as No. 1 Cascade went on to beat the eighth-seeded Seagulls, 56-34.

The loss drops the Seagulls into the consolation bracket, where they’ll play Crook County at 9 a.m. Friday. The winner of that game will play for fourth place in the tournament Saturday. The loser goes home.

Though the Seagulls held Ford and Knox to just 11 of 31 shooting, the Cougar stars collected 17 trips to the free-throw line and made 16 of them. Knox ended up with 23 points to lead the Cougars and Ford followed with 19 — the two guards together outscoring all the Seagulls.

For the Seagulls, Friday’s game was one of their worst shooting performances of the season. The team shot just 26.5% and connected on just three of 25 three-point attempts.

“We had a good first quarter,” said Seaside head coach Bill Westerholm, who’s retiring after this season. “That second quarter we got out of sync offensively. With us getting down 10 we had to extend ourselves in the second half, which is pretty difficult to do when you have two really good players on the other team.”

Westerholm said the Seagulls’ goal was to hold Cascade to 40-45 points, but missed shots got Seaside out of rhythm.

“We got away from what we were doing early in the first quarter, which helped the momentum shift,” Westerholm said.

Westerholm said many of the Seagulls players were battling through the flu that’s been going through the county.

“I’m proud of the way the kids battled,” he said. “We competed on defense; offensively we just didn’t play very well. Let’s go home, get some sleep” — and a bit of rest could help the team shake off the effects of the flu.

“Hopefully tomorrow morning we will give a better effort on the offensive end,” he said.

Palmer led the Seagulls with 13 points, while White was the leading rebounder for Seaside with seven before fouling out in the fourth quarter.