By Bill Spinks

Special to the Tribune

Class 2A No. 9-ranked Melissa had almost all of Brock's scoring options covered in Monday night's Region II quarterfinal contest.

It was the one they didn't that ended up burning the Cardinals.

Denied the perimeter by a persistent Melissa defense, the Eagles (28-6) instead rode the dribble penetration of senior point guard Gage Baker to a 54-46 win against the Cardinals at Nolan Catholic High School, ending Texomaland's last hope in the UIL basketball playoffs.

"It was awesome," said Baker, who finished with 24 points, seven rebounds and seven steals. "In a big atmosphere like this, if you can't get pumped up for this, you can't get pumped up for anything."

Baker scored 21 consecutive Brock points from the end of the first half to early in the fourth quarter, including all 15 of the Eagles' points in the third frame.

"Brock in the past has relied on outside shooting, and we focused on that and did a good job stopping their best scorers," said Melissa coach Clint Sadler. "In doing so, it opened up the middle of the paint for (Baker) and he did a fantastic job. He dominated the second half."

Sophomore post Drake Osborn added 11 points and nine rebounds for unranked Brock, which will play either Godley or Life School Oak Cliff in the Region II semifinals at Tarleton State University in Stephenville at 6 p.m.

Melissa (31-5) tried to counter with junior Hondo Webb, who himself had a monster game with 23 points, 17 boards and three steals. But a cold start to the game where the Cards missed 12 of their first 15 shots made the mountain too hard to climb, even though the final three periods were played on even terms.

"That hurt us," Sadler said. "We got into a deficit early and ... were spinning our wheels trying to catch up. We had a lot of good looks, and when we missed, it made it tough."

Trailing 14-6 at the end of the first eight minutes, Melissa persevered and whittled the deficit to seven points before halftime on a Webb free throw, before Baker, who only had two points up to that point, made a pair from the charity stripe for a 23-14 Brock lead at the intermission.

From that point on, Baker single-handedly took over to keep the Cardinals at bay, with four buckets -- including a 3-pointer -- and six free throws in the third. Baker then scored the Eagles' first two baskets of the fourth to bump Brock's lead to double digits, 42-31.

A late flurry by Webb, who hit two treys from NBA range in the final minutes, brought Melissa back within seven points with 21.7 seconds left, but the Cardinals missed two more 3-point attempts while Brock made 3-of-6 foul shots to put the game away.

"When you play games against teams like Peaster, you get into situations like that when ... teams will make runs on you," said Brock coach Jeff Bell. "We just have to control those as best as we can. (Webb) is outstanding, but for the most part we controlled him."

Melissa loses four seniors, including starter Trent Bazis and sixth man Brodie Russell, but has a talented nucleus back, led by the all-state guard Webb.

"(Bazis and Russell) did a fantastic job holding their two leading scorers in check," Sadler said. "They played their hearts out. What those two guys meant to us doesn't show up in the stats. They'll be hard to replace, but we do have a strong core coming back, and nobody's gonna work harder in the offseason than those guys."