The Eastern women’s basketball team will look brand new this season after losing multiple players from last year’s roster.

Morgan Palombizio, Jordyne Crunk and Taryn Olson left the team because of graduation. All three of those women started all 28 games for the Panthers.

Katlyn Payne was also a starter and transferred to Northern Illinois. Also freshman Kaycee Kallenberger and Aaliyah Gaines left for undisclosed reasons.

Eastern coach Debbie Black did not waste any time replacing all the players she lost last season.

The second-year coach signed six freshmen and also received two transfer students from community colleges.

Most notable is freshman Grace Lennox, who is from Australia.

Lennox comes into Eastern with plenty of experience with upper-level basketball.

Lennox, who is projected to be one of the starters on the team, played with the Hobart Chargers in the South East Australia Basketball League.

In the SEABL, Lennox was a two-time All-League player and was a member of the Australian Under 17 National team that competed in the FIBA Oceania games.

Lennox also has leadership ability as she was the captain of the Tasmanian National Team during the Australian State Championships.

Sophomore Phylicia Johnson is coming over from Cincinnati State Technical College after playing at that school for one season.

Johnson averaged 17.3 points per game, while shooting 45 percent from the floor and 41.2 percent from 3-point range and averaged 74 percent from the free throw line.

She scored in double figures in 21 straight games, while having three games with 30 points or more. Her season-high as a freshman was 39 points.

Freshmen Mariah Madison played at Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep and was named to the All-Chicago Public League first team as a senior averaging 16 points per game.

Freshmen Bh’rea Griffin helped her Morgan Park team post a 21-9 record as a senior winning the Regional Championship. She was rated as one of the top-50 players in the Chicagoland area as a senior.

She averaged 13.3 points, 6.8 assists and 4.5 steals per game.

Red-shirt junior Shakita Cox transferred to Eastern from Eastern Arizona College, averaging 13.9 points per game, 3.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists and ranked second on the team in both scoring and assists.

Freshman Morgan Martin played at Kennedy High School in Iowa and helped lead her team to the Iowa class 5A State quarterfinals as a senior, earning third-team All-State honors.

Martin ranked fifth in class 5A in rebounding at nine per game and had her junior season cut short because of an injury, but averaged 16 points and 11 rebounds per game.

Freshman Jalisha Smith averaged 13.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 3.3 steals per game at Simeon High School in Chicago and posted four double-doubles.

She had four games where she scored 20 or more points.

Freshman Kandace Tate averaged 4.4 points per game at Homewood-Flossmoor High School and played on a team that had six players earn Division I scholarships.

Her team had a record of 19-3 including 14-0 in conference.

Returning for the Panthers this season will be seniors Sabina Oroszova and Deanna Willis.

Also, junior Alece Shumpert, sophomores Erica Brown and Georgia Danos will be returning along with senior Arnisha Thomas.

Bob Reynolds (@BobReynoldsDEN) can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].