By Bill Ruthhart

Sports editor

One-thousand, five-hundred and thirty five points. That is the scoring output Eastern’s “Big Three,” senior point guard Matt Britton, senior guard Kyle Hill and sophomore forward Henry Domercant, have produced together in 26 games this season.

That figures out to be roughly 72 percent of the 2,000-plus points the Panthers (18-9, 11-5) scored in the regular season, which concluded Saturday night with a 89-80 win over Eastern Kentucky. Not only have they combined to dominate the team’s point production, but the “Big Three” have also made 70 percent of the team’s field goals, 73 percent of its free throws, pulled down nearly half of its of rebounds and have made a whopping 94 percent of Eastern’s three-pointers.

Without a doubt, this trio is the power behind the Panthers.

“Looking at them as a group, they fit our system so well,” Panther head coach Rick Samuels said of his top three scorers. “They play very unselfishly, and they compliment one another well. Because of those guys’ concentration, we’ve been a very successful offensive team.”

With the nation’s 3rd leading scorer Domercant averaging 22.9 points per game, the nation’s 5th leading scorer Hill averaging 22.4 points per game and Britton averaging 13.4 points per game, it’s obvious why these sharp shooters have been dubbed “The Big Three.” But Hill says the nickname means more than just point production.

“I think with us three, we all took the lead in games and at practice, and I think everyone looks for us to do that,” he said. “That’s why they call us the `Big Three.’

“Ever since I’ve been here, it seems like there’s always been a `Big Three,’ Hill said. “There’s always been three guys or three top guards because our offense is more guard-oriented.”

But has there ever been a `Big Three’ like this one?

“Maybe a long time ago,” Samuels said. “I’d have to go back to the days of (Former NBA All-Star Kevin) Duckworth (Eastern’s No. 1 all-time rebounder, No. 4 all-time scorer), (Jon) Collins (No. 2 all-time scorer), and (Doug) Crook (No. 15 all-time scorer),” Samuels said of the three standouts he coached from 1983-86. “Our tendency over the last couple of years has been to have more of a balanced attack, and in all honesty, this team would have been a team to have a more balanced attack than it has had not Henry and Kyle had such outstanding years.”

So outstanding that the conference’s first and second leading scorers in Domercant and Hill even took their 21-year veteran head coach by surprise.

“In the preseason, I’m thinking Kyle will have a good year, probably a little better than he had last year. Is that a point or two more a game? Probably, but not five,” Samuels said. “I thought Matt’s contribution would elevate from where he was last year and it has done that.

“We certainly expected Henry to average in double figures, but I think everyone would agree for him to jump where he’s jumped has surprised us all,” he said. “Those three kids have had good years, but the production of Kyle and Henry has just been outstanding. They’re just so consistent.”

Both Samuels and his top trio believe the Panthers two-week, six-game European summer trip in August had a major impact on the “Big Three’s” emergence.

“(The trip) certainly helped Henry move into the role he’s filled for us this year, and the extra practices and the physical games we played in Europe helped those kids become tougher,” Samuels said. “I think that psychological toughness showed (Saturday) night when we didn’t fold, and we made plays down the stretch.”

“I think things really started to come together during our European trip,” Britton said. “I wasn’t sure who would play what roles and which guys would be able to score.

“I looked around and saw a team full of players, and I realized a little more about my own role as well,” he said. “I knew the team really needed me to be a leader and do the little things the team needs to win. I knew right away that this team didn’t need another 20-point scorer.”

Britton’s adjustment to that new role has made the three even more dangerous.

“He’s really molded himself from really a shooting guard to a legitimate what I’d call a lead guard, who handles it, really orchestrates the team and scores as necessary,” he said. “But I think the key there is Matt finds people. He keeps people involved offensively.”

“There have been nights this year where I could have taken more shots, but I know that’s not my role,” Britton said. “I feel the team runs better with me taking on more of a point guard role than trying to be a scoring threat.

“We’ve got an awesome player in Kyle to fill that kind of role. Kyle is such a dynamic scorer, and everyone knows he can step up his game to another level at any moment,” he said. “And then we’ve got Henry, who I call the workhorse of the team. He puts the extra time in working hard and has been blessed with a lot of talent.

“I think that combination has made us very deadly.”

That deadly combination has made it extremely difficult for opposing teams to successfully defend all three of the Panthers’ scoring threats.

“If they anticipate me shooting the ball too much, or if they double team me, then there’s Henry,” Hill said. “And Henry’s this team’s leading scorer, so they can’t leave him open, but they can’t leave Matt open either because then he’ll make some big shots.

“So, I guess it’s like a double whammy,” he said. “We make good decisions, we make big shots, we drive to the hoop and teams just can’t key in on one or two players. I think that’s what makes us a pretty good team.”

Another element that has made the “The Big Three” so successful this year is their familiarity with each other’s style of play.

“We’ve played with each other so long that we know each other’s weaknesses and strengths,” Hill said. “And we know where each player needs the ball and wants the ball.”

And each of the three has their own distinct style of play.

“Matt is opportunistic, and he does make you pay if you leave him open for three,” Samuels said. “Look at all the offensive rebound putbacks he’s had or the little slash to the basket plays that he’s gotten.

“You think, `He’s not going to do that,'” he said. “Then all the sudden he is doing that.”

While Britton relies on open opportunities, Hill uses his outstanding athletic ability and Domercant dominates physically.

“Kyle’s thrilling,” Samuels said of Eastern’s third all-time leading scorer who needs just 15 more points to surpass Collins. “All of his plays seem exciting because of his quickness and fluid motion. His ease of motion makes everything look easy.

“Henry shoots it, takes it off the dribble, and he’s a very determined rebounder which has given him offensive rebound putbacks,” he said. “He’s more of an upright, more physical player than Kyle.”

Perhaps even more diverse than their styles of play are the three’s personalities.

“They certainly are different, and even their personalities are different,” Samuels said. “But they still compliment one another so well. Typical of our team, they care about one another.

The “Big Three” also share unique backgrounds as Britton transferred in three years ago from Division II University of Indianapolis while Domercant came in as a highly-touted freshman out of Naperville and Hill signed with the Panthers after a nomadic childhood on the south side of Chicago. The three said their different backgrounds have made for interesting and entertaining moments along the way, and each remembers the first time they came across the others.

“I remember the first time I saw Matt and I thought, “Who is this little guy?” Hill said. “And I remember the first time Matt played with us and he was like 0-20, and I was laughing and told him to keep shooting.

“But I knew coach had talked very highly about him, and I had heard of his success at D II,” he said. “But I knew he was a scorer, because he never stopped shooting, and the next time we played together, he proved himself.”

Hill’s first interaction with Domercant was similar.

“And when Henry got to practice the first time, I think he only made about one shot the whole weekend,” he said. “But I knew Henry was a pretty good player from high school, and I knew he’d be alright.”

Domercant said he’s learned significantly from both Hill’s leadership, and growing up through his redshirt season with Britton.

“With Kyle, I’ve always been learning from him and learning from his mistakes,” he said. “With Matt, both of us were sitting out our first year, and we’d have to go to battle with the first team every day in practice.

“We’d both have to go in there on the third unit and battle,” Domercant said. “That experience was great for both of us.”

Britton’s first encounter with Domercant was one he’ll never forget.

“When I transferred in from Indiana, I came in the summer before my first year, and that summer, I moved in with Henry and Jan (Thompson),” he said. “And I’ll never forget that very first night, I’m laying in bed and I hear Henry singing at midnight. And I remember thinking, `Who is this guy?’

“But in the nights to come, every night around midnight, we’d go out and play hard and do a lot of shooting,” Britton said. “I found out very quick that Henry was a great guy and had a lot of priorities in the right place and really had his head on straight.

“I think everyone would look at us and think we’re really different people from really different backgrounds, but I think me and Henry have a lot more things in common than most people would think.”

Britton’s first impression of Hill was rather elementary.

“I was in coach Samuels office, and they were all talking about Kyle Hill, and I said I hadn’t met the guy yet,” he said. “So coach showed me his picture in the media guide, and I swear if you look at his freshman picture, he looks like he’s 12.

“And coach was saying how he thought Kyle was really going to be something unbelievable and there I was looking at a picture of a 12-year-old,” Britton said. “But we played in open gym, and I was totally impressed with Kyle because for as good as he is, he’s very humble and everyone likes being around him.”

As the Panthers begin their OVC Championship run today with a first-round playoff game at home against Morehead State, the season’s fate will likely fall on the shoulders of the “Big Three”

“I’m confident in all three of them making a play and being able to rise to the occasion,” Samuels said. “Which one will it be? I don’t know. The key thing for me is to have them in the game at the right time.

“These last few games, we want to dictate what goes on,” Hill said. “We want to establish a lead, keep the lead and really play hard.

“We’re not going to go down to Nashville and lay down and die, we’re going there to compete,” he said. “Right now we need to focus on playing tough and doing the things we know we can do to win basketball games.”

Domercant’s biggest concern as the tournament begins is sending Hill and Britton out on a winning note.

“For me, I just want the seniors to go out on top,” he said. “I feel responsible for how they go out, and I want to play my role as best as I can.

“I’ve seen some seniors go out before me and fortunately, I’m closer to this group of seniors, and I don’t want to see them go out on a bad note like a blowout at SEMO (`99) or a loss to Murray State because we couldn’t get offensive rebounds (`00),” Domercant said. “I just want to create some great memories for these guys as well as myself.”

Britton sees the “Big Three” having a key advantage over the rest of the teams in the league.

“If we play to win and aren’t afraid to fail, I know we’ll come out on top,” he said. “I feel real good about having three go-to guys that can have the ball in their hands at the end of the game, and let the other team worry about stopping us.

“With Austin Peay, you know they’re going to give the ball to Trenton Hassell, and with Murray, you know Isaac Spencer will take the last shot,” Britton said. “But we have three guys that they’re going to have to worry about guarding clear to the buzzer, and we’ll make them pay.”

The three are also seeking a payment of another sort – respect.

“If you’re from Eastern Illinois in this conference, you’ll always be the underdog,” Hill said. “An EIU team will never get the respect it deserves, so we go out every night and earn it.

“This is a Tennessee-based league and it has been controlled by those teams over a long time,” Domercant said. “We’ve never won this conference, and we’ve made some small statements, but haven’t really shocked anyone yet.

“Even after this year, we’ll still be ranked sixth or seventh for the preseason next year,” he said. “We finished third last year and some polls had us picked to finish last.”

Hill said the lack of respect is just another reason to prove everyone wrong.

“That’s definitely motivation for us. You never want to be looked down on,” he said. “We want to gain the respect we deserve.

“We’ve done a good job of getting more respect this year, but we still feel like the job isn’t done,” Hill said. “We’re still waiting to shock the world.”

Another means of motivation for the Big Three has been to win Samuels his first-ever OVC crown.

“Our goal is just not to win this tournament for ourselves, but to win it for coach Samuels,” Hill said. “He’s a great guy and he knows what talent is all about,and he deserves to win it.

“He’s done so much for me, and going through all those tough times, he went through all of those with me,” he said. “He never left me alone, just because he saw something in me. We want to go out and play in the NCAA tournament and get coach back there.”

Britton and Domercant see winning the conference tournament as a way of repaying Samuels for all the effort he has put in developing them as athletes and as people.

“He’s definitely a great coach, and we want it for him just as badly as he wants it for us,” Domercant said. “We’re in this thing together, and this is a family-type team. He’s done so much for us to teach us and help us become men, and this is something we can give him for all he has given us.”

“Coach Samuels puts his job on the line by bringing us in here, and we owe him to do the very best we can for him,” Britton said. “It would be great to win the conference championship for coach and go to the tournament.”

Whether or not the Panthers can bring Eastern its first-ever Ohio Valley Conference championship, and make just the school’s second-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament remains to be seen. But one thing is for certain, the 2000-2001 season will be for the “Big Three” and the rest of Charleston to remember.

“I just want people to see that we were great guys that played hard and were focused on winning and came together as a team,” Domercant said. “I want people to remember that we all came together and had one team goal.”

Britton and Hill hope the 2001 Panthers will be remembered for reaching that goal.

“Of course, the great thing would be that they will look back and see we were conference tournament champions,” Britton said. “But I hope people look back and also remember how fun it was to watch us play, how exciting Lantz was that season, how the students really got involved and how it was a really fun year.”

“I just want people to remember us as a great bunch of guys and hopefully somewhere next to our picture, they’ll see we made it to the NCAA tournament and maybe even upset somebody,” Hill said. “I just want them to say they were a great bunch of guys, good players, with a great coach that did what they had to do to win.”