Shepherd University’s Beeman honored as All-American

Shepherd University point guard Abby Beeman was recently name a first-team All-American. Courtesy photo
SHEPHERDSTOWN — “Coach on the floor.”
“Ultimate competitor.”
“Cool, calm, collected and knows how to get her team home in the win column.”
“A pleasure to watch with her hustle, abilities and knowledge of the game.”
Those are not just platitudes about Shepherd women’s basketball point guard Abby Beeman.
Beeman so impressed her opponents and their coaches that she was recently name a first-team All-American — the first such honor ever heaped on the talents of any Shepherd women’s player.
Her on-court demeanor reminds any basketball analyst of a player totally in charge of what she sees … and how to make any necessary changes in her generalship of the game’s tempo or score.
Shepherd reeled off a school record 25 wins this past season. The Rams reached the NCAA Division II national tournament after an almost tour de force through the regular season schedule.
In the national tournament, Shepherd was placed in the eight-school Atlantic Regional, which just so happened to be hosted by champion-to-be Glenville State from West Virginia.
Gannon of the PSAC fell to the fifth-seeded Rams in the opening round of the Atlantic Regional. And the Lady Pioneers of Glenville ended Shepherd’s historic run in the next round.
Glenville would end the season of every team it steamrolled for the remainder of the tournament, as it returned to Gilmer County from Birmingham. AL, site of the Elite Eight, with all the national championship hardware it could carry.
Beeman had scored 32 points in a 12-point Shepherd loss to the eventual national champions. Shepherd’s loss was the closest game Glenville had in the whole of the tournament, which included a 31-point demolition of Charleston (WV), the only team that owned a previous win over Glenville in the 2021-2022 season.
A sweeping survey of Beeman’s statistical accomplishments this past season showed her leading the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference with a 19.0 scoring average and a 8.1 assists-per-game norm, which was the best in the country.
Beeman averaged 2.9 steals per game, claimed 184 rebounds even as a point guard, and played about 38 minutes per game (1,254 minutes in all).
Frustrated opponents saw her score at least 20 points in 16 games. She shot 45% from the field (223-for-491) and converted 84.4 percent of her free throws.
Coming to Shepherd from Ridgeley, WV and Frankfort High School, Beeman immediately stepped in as a starter from her first game in November of 2019. Her quiet confidence and virtuoso command of basketball fundaments made her an on-court leader from the outset of her freshman season.
Shepherd was going to be formidable in every game Beeman could form the style of play. So, several teams defensed her with an individual assigned to her while stationing other defenders in a zone alignment. Shepherd saw “box-and-one” and “triangle-and-two” alignments strictly designed to limit Beeman’s number of shots and ability to orchestrate the pace and tempo.
Shepherd had a record-setting season. It opened eyes in geographical areas that never knew about the women’s team from “quaint and historic Shepherdstown.”
And college basketball coaches recognized more than mere statistics when placing Beeman on the NCAA Division II first-team All-American squad.