You’ll have to excuse G-MU head coach Jim Johnson if he is a bit partial to his leading scorer on the varsity girls team. Johnson, an old left-hander, has overseen the development of senior scorer leader Tanya Barnes, a lefty herself.

Around this area, Barnes has toiled for four years with little fanfare. The teams she has played on the previous three years accumulated a 21-35 record. Yet, Barnes has consistently put excellent numbers on the board, that despite the target on her back as opponents’ primary focus on defense. She led the county in scoring last year at 17.8 points per game, and was the third leading scorer in the area as a sophomore scoring 16.3 points a game on a team that won just three games.

Since that sophomore season, Johnson has needed to devise offensive schemes to free Barnes up. Johnson is not unfamiliar with facing junk defenses, most recently G-MU grad and career scoring leader Shelly Miles, the player who most resembles Barnes on the floor, was consistently defending with everything imaginable. “We just keep adding and tinkering to the things we do against (junk defenses),” Johnson said.

Johnson has become a master at having screens set for Barnes, moving her to the low or high post as needed, but also relying on Barnes’ instincts to create opportunities for herself.

In last Friday’s critical division game at Franklin, Barnes had two steals that she turned into layups early in the fourth. Late in the game, Barnes’ three-pointer from the top of the key provided the clinching points. Those three points also put Barnes over the 1,000-point mark for her career. Barnes is the third G-MU girl to eclipse 1,000 career points, and the fifth player overall to do so for 32-year coach Johnson. As the second Chenango County player in as many weeks to eclipse 1,000 points, Barnes is our selection as Smith Ford, Giant’s Warehouse/Evening Sun Athlete of the Week.

“In the big games we have played, she seems to come up big for us,” Johnson said. “Against Morris this year, she had 26 points. Against Franklin the other night, she scored 28. Last year in the sectional playoffs, she had a big scoring night against Candor.”