Tess Barnes shining for Cowgirls through nonconference schedule

Dec. 29—LARAMIE — This past offseason, a lot was made of the graduation of Quinn Weidemann and Tommi Olson off the University of Wyoming women's basketball team. However, the Cowgirls also had another key departure from their Mountain West Conference runner-up roster in starting forward Grace Ellis.

Ellis was one of the leading scorers from a season ago, and helped anchor the front court alongside junior Allyson Fertig. With her absence from the lineup, UW needed to find someone to fill those shoes.

Junior forward Tess Barnes has emerged as that player. Through the nonconference portion of the season, Barnes has blossomed into not only a reliable presence in the paint and on the wing, but a leader, as well.

"The ability she has and the experience she has, coming in and giving us really good minutes (has helped her fill that role)," Cowgirls coach Heather Ezell said. "The way that she's been playing has been a huge boost for us and a confidence booster for her, too.

"We just have to continue to get her to buy into continuing to play hard and understanding that there aren't many teams that can guard her inside and out, and being able to continue that play into conference."

Entering the season, Barnes had a good feeling her role would be expanded. The hunch wasn't just based off Ellis' departure, but also through conversations with the coaching staff over the summer.

"It was something I definitely thought I could do and still think that I can do it and do a decent job," Barnes said. "It's definitely difficult at times, but it's something I have enjoyed. The girls this year have made it a really good experience, and they are really good at listening. The coaches have also been helping out with that leadership role a lot."

Knowing her role was about to expand, Barnes put in a tremendous amount of work over the summer to prepare for the upcoming season. She worked on play reading, ball handling and playing out of position so she could be utilized wherever the UW coaching staff needed her.

Barnes credits her former coaches and father for helping her with the workload.

"(Those workouts) were tough, that's for sure," Barnes said. "My dad used to be a basketball player, and he's also a coach. He helped me walk through a bunch of ball handling drills around cones, attacking the rim off the dribble, pull-up jumpers, all that kind of stuff."

Barnes' teammates and coaches have raved about the 6-foot-2 forward's confidence, both in practice and in games. Ezell said she is also impressed with Barnes' commitment to improving physically.

"I will also give her a lot of credit, she has worked hard in the weight room to change her body so she can compete night in and night out with what we call 'bigs,'" Ezell said. "At times, in that four position, you are competing with some bigger and stronger players. Credit to her, she's gotten herself ready to be able to be one of the top fours in our league."

That confidence has led Barnes to massive improvements across the board this season. The junior enters Saturday's matchup against Boise State averaging just over eight points per game, a mark that is nearly double her output from a season ago.

Barnes also set a career high in points Dec. 21 against Wright State to open the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic. Barnes posted 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting in the contest to help UW pick up a 71-61 win. She didn't miss a shot in the contest until midway through the third quarter.

"She's our best shooter on the team, and I trust her to shoot any shot she has at the 3-point line," junior forward Allyson Fertig said following the team's win. "Going into conference play, we need a good outside game. Knowing we can trust her to knock down the shots we need to get the energy up again is really important."

Like many other international players, Barnes had a goal of coming to the United States to play college basketball after she finished high school.

Through the course of the recruiting process, Barnes got offers from schools in California and Florida, as well as UW. The Grisborne, Australia product admitted she didn't know a lot about the town of Laramie prior to first contact, but quickly fell in love with both the school and the community.

"(My decision) came down to how similar Laramie was to home," Barnes said. "The coaches were fantastic, and I love how the whole community gets behind the women's basketball program."

While size and feel played a big part in Barnes' decision to come to Laramie, UW's roster construction played a major role in her decision, as well. After consulting some of her friends that had played in college in the United States, Barnes was told to find a roster that had international players on it.

"They were like, 'You need to go to a place that already has international girls, because if you go to a team with only American, they don't understand,'" Barnes said. "As soon as I saw how many international girls were here, I just knew this would be a perfect place. They understand what international girls go through with home sickness, being away from our families, all that kind of stuff."

Having a number of different international players on the team has been a benefit for Barnes, even going back to her freshman season. She said she leaned heavily on former Cowgirl Alba Sanchez-Ramos to help her acclimate to life away from home. Even to this day, she and the six other international players continue to rely on each other.

"They all understand what you're going through," Barnes said. "My freshman year sucked. I (was homesick), and it was the longest I had ever been away from my family. It was miserable, for lack of a better term. So, having other players that are also away from their families really helped, because it wasn't just me going through that."

UW kicks off its conference season this afternoon when it hosts Boise State at the Arena-Auditorium. For the Cowgirls to succeed in the conference portion of the season, Barnes will need to continue to be at her best.

"The biggest thing (for her now) is consistency and being able to do those things night in and night out," Ezell said. "With the Wednesday/Saturday schedule, you have to be able to do it two days in a row, then you can have a day off to rest before having to get (right back to it).

"If she has that consistency, it makes us that much better. "

Matt Atencio covers Laramie County prep sports for WyoSports. He can be reached at matencio@wyosports.net. Follow him on X at @MattAtencio5.