Five-foot-four point guard Abby Beeman was an influential player on Shepherd University’s women’s basketball team. Courtesy photo

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Is basketball a sport where only the tallest players can excel? Or does size mean only so much and then being competitive, having a vast knowledge of the nuances of the game and possessing the needed natural ability mean just as much?

Height can be important. But the innate desire and a willingness to do what is necessary to win in practice and actual games is usually more important.

Some players can imprint their winning attitudes on the games they influence.

When 5-foot-4 point guard Abby Beeman was at Shepherd, she was so influential along with 2022 seniors Sydney Clayton, Marley McLaughlin and Hannah Myers that the Rams ran off 25 wins in the ultra successful 2021-2022 season. Those 25 wins were the most in school history.

And then Coach Jenna Eckleberry went to Frostburg State, the high-scoring seniors were gone and Beeman transferred to Division I Marshall.

Shepherd basketball cascaded downward and has not won a single game through the last days of January.

Now the reliable starting point guard at Marshall, Beeman has helped the Thundering herd to a 12-9 overall record and a mid-level position in the 14-team Sun Belt Conference standings.

Marshall’s women’s team has never scorched the earth in any league they have been in recently. Now it has a three-game winning streak in progress in games through January that has seen wins come over Southern Mississippi, Louisiana-Monroe and Arkansas State.

Beeman scored almost 20 points a game at Shepherd last season. She was accorded All-American honors and led the Rams in numerous statistical categories.

In moving from that NCAA Division II ranks to Division I she currently leads Marshall in minutes played, rebounds and steals. She has converted 56-of-72 free throws (.778), has 112 assists compared to 52 turnovers and is scoring at a 13.6 points per game clip (second on the team).

It’s not often a 5-foot-4 player can lead a team in rebounding.

She has recorded a pair of double-doubles this season.

Against Arkansas State, Beeman was 8-for-8 from the free throw line. She had 12 rebounds and seven assists (as compared with two turnovers). Her 14 points were the team’s second-most.

In the two-point win over Louisiana Monroe on the road, she was 6-for-10 from the field and has eight assists and no turnovers.

In a 53-52 win over Southern Mississippi in Huntington, she was credited with nine assists and played all 40 minutes.

Marshall will be in the Sun Belt Conference tournament along with all 13 of the other schools from Feb. 28 through March 6. That event will be staged in Pensacola, Fla.

Being competitive and knowing the in’s and out’s of basketball has Beeman where she is now. Striving to win by going hard in practice and outhustling the rest of the crowd has her thriving at the Division I level.

The Thundering Herd has become a more capable team and caused more waves in the Sun Belt with the arrival of Beeman and her will-to-win attitude and influential work ethic.