February 16, 2010

DAHLONEGA, GA – The North Georgia women’s basketball team is partnering with the Women’s Basketball Association (WBCA) and the 2010 WBCA Pink Zone initiative to raise awareness for breast cancer.

The Lady Saints will use Wednesday evening’s Peach Belt Conference contest against the University of Montevallo as a Pink Zone game with tip-off slated for 5:30 p.m. in Memorial Hall. Head women’s basketball coach Buffie Burson and her staff have encouraged fans to wear pink to the game to support this important cause.

The WBCA Pink Zone initiative is a global, unified effort for the WBCA’s nation of coaches to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond.

The window set aside for this year's initiative is February 12-21. The WBCA's charity of choice is the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund®, in partnership with The V Foundation. The WBCA strongly encourages any donations collected from WBCA Pink Zone games to be given to the Fund.

"Each year, I grow more and more amazed at the dedication of coaches, fans, student-athletes and women's basketball supporters who unite in the fight against breast cancer by participating in the WBCA Pink Zone," said WBCA CEO Beth Bass. "Through this initiative, women's basketball becomes much more than wins and losses, and I cannot think of a more important win than finding a cure for this disease."

Throughout the WBCA Pink Zone week, women’s basketball teams and supporters across the nation will dedicate one game to raise breast cancer awareness and funding. Teams, fans and arenas will be decked out in pink, survivors will be honored at games, referees will blow pink whistles, donations will be collected, and much more! For a complete list of participants, click here.

The WBCA began the WBCA Pink Zone®, formerly known as "Think Pink", in 2007 as an initiative to raise breast cancer awareness in women's basketball, on campuses and in communities. The late Kay Yow, former North Carolina State University head women's basketball coach, served as the catalyst for the initiative after her third reoccurrence of breast cancer in 2006.

In 2007, more than 120 schools unified for this effort and helped make the inaugural year a success. In 2008, over 1,200 teams and organizations participated, reaching over 830,000 fans and raising over $930,000 for breast cancer awareness and research. The 2009 campaign raised over $1.3 million, reached over 912,000 fans, unified more than 1,600 participating teams and organizations, and saw 56+ schools break attendance records at their event.