The departure of Amy Lewis and the rest of the Troy Trojans women’s basketball senior class hurt Troy, but head coach Michael Murphy said the team would move on just like any other team in the country.

“With seven new players out of 15 we have been working really hard,” Murphy said.

The Trojans lost more than 3,000 career points and close to 1,200 career rebounds with the loss of senior starters Lewis, Laura Lee Holman and Audrey Muse.

Murphy said seniors Kylie Morrissy and Larelle Roper will have to bear the brunt of that load this year. And Murphy is staying positive about the loss of last year’s talent.

“Any time you have players graduate, which is what we all want, you provide opportunities for others to step forward,” Murphy said. “Kylie has had a very strong three years here, as had Larelle. Kylie has been a consistent scorer and rebounder for us. Larelle has been consistent at the point and been a coach on the floor. I think for us to have success these two young ladies have to have very consistent years and I think they will do that.”

With Lewis gone, Morrissy and Roper will be looked at more to finish games and to knock down that shot in the waning seconds of a game. Morrissy is ready for that challenge.

“Between me and Larelle we have had the ball in our hands at the end of the game,” Morrissy said. “Last year teams knew it was going to Amy so they locked down on her and it opened me and Larelle up and we always teamed well together to get that score.”

Murphy said consistency will be a huge part of whether the Trojans succeed or not this year.

“Any time you come into Division I athletics, I don’t care where you came from, I don’t care how good your high school was or how good the junior college was you were at, you have no idea how hard you have to work consistently just to survive,” Murphy said. “So we are looking for consistency of effort and they are learning how to do that every day.”

With new faces comes the challenge of coming together as a team, but Roper is not worried about team chemistry.

“It is a very difficult thing to have seven new faces all from different backgrounds,” Roper said. “But with what coach Murphy is doing on the court all the seniors have tried to combine all the faces into one team and help them along. We have taken them under our wing and tried to break the barrier there. The chemistry is really good at the moment, but we are still in that learning process.”

The Trojans have a class of seven freshmen and Murphy said he does not know which of those seven will help the team the most yet.

“We will know which of the newcomers will have the most impact two or three games into (the season),” Murphy said. “For the first half of the season it will vary who makes an impact. But of those seven we need two who become pretty consistent once we get into mid to late December.”

The Trojans open the season in Atlanta, Ga. against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets of the ACC Nov. 14.