Myers

Amongst those 24 wins were Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference tournament victories over West Chester and Bloomsburg.

Shepherd didn’t rumble through the PSAC tournament in undefeated fashion, losing in the semifinals to the California Vulcans. California eventually lost in the championship game to Gannon.

The NCAA Division II women’s basketball committee in Indianapolis saw that Shepherd’s resume contained wins over Gannon, California and Bloomsburg during its 31-game march from mid-November into early March and selected the Rams as the fifth-seeded team for the Atlantic Regional.

When the Rams defeated Gannon on Dec. 3 in Shepherdstown, both teams were undefeated at the time, with Shepherd moving to 6-0 with the win over the Golden Knights.

Shipley

Three months later, the two teams seem to be far removed from their pre-Christmas situations.

Gannon (24-6 overall) just won the PSAC tournament. Shepherd has tied the school record for wins in a season with the 24 it has recorded, but the Rams were bruised, 78-49, by California in their last game in that same event.

Once-beaten Glenville was selected as the top-seed and given the host role for the Atlantic Region tournament. The Pioneers actually didn’t lose at all until the championship game of the Mountain East Conference tournament where they dropped a high-scoring, three-point verdict to champion Charleston (W.Va.).

Firing in the Atlantic Regional begins today at noon when third-seeded Kutztown (Pa.) faces sixth-seeded Charleston. At about 2:30 p.m. it will be second-seeded California going against seventh-seeded Indiana (Pa.). Top-seeded Glenville will be heavily favored against eighth-seeded Lincoln (Pa.) at about 5 p.m. and then Shepherd and Gannon begin their game at about 7 p.m.

The tournament semifinals come on Saturday and then the championship game is scheduled for Monday night.

Clayton

There are 64 teams in the far-flung national tournament with each of eight regions having eight teams entered.

Several Shepherd players received individual honors following the PSAC tourney. Point guard Abby Beeman was selected by the conference coaches as the East Division Player of the Year. Beeman has an 18.8 points per game average going into today’s match against Gannon. She actually leads the nation in assists with 7.9 per game and is the second-leading rebounder on the team.

Both Sydney Clayton (17.3 points) and Marley McLaughlin (16.5 points) were selected to the East Division second-team by the coaches.

When it is slowed by any opponent, it often means the Beeman-Clayton-McLaughlin trio didn’t get much scoring help from starters Hannah Myers and Meghan Shipley or any reserves. In a 78-49 loss to California in the recent conference tournament, players other than the Beeman-Clayton-McLaughlin combination scored only three points between them and the Rams faltered badly in falling by 29 points. Neither Myers nor Shipley scored at all.

Should Shepherd manage a win over Gannon, it would then see the winner of the Glenville versus Lincoln game in tomorrow’s semifinals.

Beeman

It has already been a record-setting season for the Rams. Returning to Glenville, a long-time member of the disbanded WVIAC and now the MEC along with Shepherd, may bring some distant history back into focus for some Shepherd people, but all those past games at the Gilmer County college were never against Gannon nor in the rarified air of a national tournament.

McLaughlin