Gentle tears filled Demetrius McReynolds’ eyes as he answered questions in a defeated voice following a first-round exit to Murray State in the Ohio Valley Conference men’s basketball tournament last year.

It was a bad loss all around, as Eastern struggled mightily with constant turnovers, while the offense became stagnant and one-dimensional.

Nearly nine months later, one-dimensional is no longer a worry for the Panthers with four starters back along with three game-changing junior college transfers joining the team.

Junior Muusa Dama is one of the three transfers, and his slamming finish to co-transfer Montell Goodwin’s alley-oop pass against Bradley was enough to show the athletic talent separating this year’s team from last.

The basic style of play Eastern coach Jay Spoonhour has followed in past years is out the window.

McReynolds returns with those tournament struggles in the rear-view mirror, as the senior has scored double-digit points in all but two games this season.

With the returning experience molding with the newfound athleticism, this year has already been a different story, and the team’s performance against the University of Illinois at Chicago was another example of that.

The Panthers used their depth to win the rebound battle 46-37, while the guards led Eastern to shooting 54 percent beyond the three-point line and nearly 45 percent from the rest of the field.

This Eastern team is no longer relying on one source to score all its points as it did through leading scorer Trae Anderson last season.

It is no longer relying on junior guard Cornell Johnston to play nearly every minute of the game while trying to do it all for the Panthers’ offense.

Instead, balance has led to harmony for a team that has scored 70 points in all but two of its games, as well as more than 90 in two of its first eight.

The high-scoring offense is always nice, but what also stands out is the difference in scoring margin for Eastern this season.

The Panthers had a -2.4 scoring margin a year ago opposed to beating their opponents by a little more than eight points per game.

Sunday’s 90-point performance against UIC was led by four Panthers scoring in double-digits, even though their big men struggled in foul trouble.

Eastern’s top two scoring centers, Pat Muldoon and Dama, fouled out early in the second half. Losing two big men in a game last year would have resulted in the season-long struggle of losing the rebound battle while forcing bad shots; but this year, the depth prevails.

The turning point of this team’s season came when Aboubacar Diallo checked into the game to replace Muldoon and Dama, and he snagged 14 rebounds off the bench to keep Eastern going.

Adding to that, sophomore Casey Teson and junior Ray Crossland combined for 23 of the Panthers’ 31 points off the bench to prove that this offense does not start and stop through one player.

That 14-point victory did more than just give Eastern its first road win of the season; it showed what could be in store for this dynamic offense.

The Panthers’ depth and early success is not only making last year’s early postseason exit seem distant, but is setting the team up well for a conference slate that is never easy to overcome.

Maher Kawash can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].