Abby Beeman was all in double figures by halftime, during the Senior Day game last Saturday. Courtesy photo

SHEPHERDSTOWN — A delighted crowd announced at 841 noisily cheered Shepherd’s 91-53 Senior Day win over Mansfield as the women posted their 20th win of the season last Saturday at the simmering Butcher Center.

In moving its record to 20-8 and closing out the regular season on a high note, the Rams finished fourth in the nine-team East Division of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and qualified for a first-round home game in the league’s tournament.

Mansfield suffered through still another loss in a weathered campaign that saw the Mounties win only one PSAC game and finish with a 3-25 overall record.

Shepherd’s only senior/graduate student, Anna Ross, was given her lone start of the 2019-2020 season and responded with a 30-point effort as well as 13 rebounds in her 28 minutes of playing time. Ross was 12-for-19 from the field and made all three of her free throws.

Mansfield could never slow the Shepherd offense, which had four players scoring in double figures in the first half alone.

Breezing along with a 52-25 lead at halftime, the Rams had made 67 percent of their field goal tries, 64 percent of their three-point shots and 5-of-6 free throws in blowing out to a 27-point lead by the intermission.

Ross, Marley McLaughlin, Sydney Clayton and Abby Beeman were all in double figures by the time the teams broke for the halftime intermission.

The Rams also owned a 22-10 rebounding advantage after two quarters of Shepherd-dominated play.

Shepherd bullied the Mounties into submission by scoring 30 points in the second quarter, while Mansfield could answer with only six points.

The game got so out of hand in the second half that Shepherd point guard Beeman — who has often played all 40 minutes of games — was rested throughout the last period and had 29 minutes of court time.

After a slow-scoring third quarter, a group that included three Shepherd reserves found the means to notch another 26 points in the final quarter.

McLaughlin finished with 21 points and eight rebounds and was employed as the de facto point guard with Beeman watching in the last quarter. Jordan Smith scored a season high 16 points and made five three-point shots.

Lock Haven, a team the Rams defeated twice, was Shepherd’s first-round tournament opponent in a game played at the Butcher Center this past Monday.

Ross and the Rams had Saturday’s large crowd bubbling during the Senior Day offering that completed a virtual turnaround season from the 11-18 record the team had in 2019.