Five to seven players scoring the majority of a team’s points tends to work a lot better than two guys scoring most of the points. That is the lesson Eastern learned in its game in the first round of NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional against the No. 2 seeded Arizona Wildcats.

“We played a team that has great athletes and great depth,” Eastern head coach Rick Samuels said. “And you know they wore us down.”

The Panthers (21-10) were worn down and only were able to get to double-digit scorring from senior guard Kyle Hill, who led all players with 32 points, and forward Henry Domercant who put in 20.

“Eastern creates problems for you defensively because of the great range that they have from Hill and Domercant,” Arizona head coach Lute Olson said. “We had to make sure that they weren’t able to get open off of a lot of screens so our big guys had to do a lot of doubling to slow them down.”

Not only was Olson impressed with the play of Eastern’s two leading scorers, but so was Arizona guard Gilbert Arenas who along with U of A point guard Richard Jefferson had to guard Hill and Domercant for most of the game.

“Well, they have two perimeter players that have the ultra green light,” Arenas sadi. “You just have to be there when they catch the ball and hope to alter their shot. “But other then there is not much you can do because they are going to get their shots up,” he said.

Arizona was impressive in their own right with five players scoring over 10 points, led by Arenas who led the Wildcats with 21.

Other Arizona players in double figures were center Loren Woods and forward Michael Wright, each finishing with 17 points.

Jefferson chipped in 12, and reserve forward Eugene Edgerson dropped in 13 to round out the Arizona double digit scorers.

One of the advantages that helped the Wildcats gain the big edge in scoring was the effectiveness of their inside game. With the size and athleticism of Arizona’s big men, the Panthers were basically helpless at times as the Wildcats outscored Eastern in the paint 64-26.

“Offensively we knew we were going to be able to get a lot of shots in the paint,” Woods said. “So all week we worked on getting the ball inside

“We knew that their big guys like to play behind in the post, and that’s great for us,” he said. “Any time we can get open shots in the paint, we’re going to take them.”

Among all of the things that the Wildcats did right in Friday’s game, the most important was the balance of their offensive attack – something Eastern couldn’t match.

“We knew that there were a lot of upsets out there, and we knew that Eastern Illinois was a team that was capable of upsetting a higher seed,” Woods said. “They had great scoring from the outside, but we had great scoring from the outside and in the inside.”