Women's Basketball Hosts Pink Zone Event Feb. 5 To Raise Breast Cancer Awareness

Springfield, Ohio — At 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 5, Wittenberg University's women's basketball team will take on two very different opponents – the visiting Allegheny College Gators in a key North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) match-up and a disease that has affected so many in society as part of the Tigers' their annual Pink Zone event. 

In recognition of the on-going battle against cancer, and in honor of both those who have survived and those whose lives have been taken by the disease, Head Coach Sarah Jurewicz, class of 1998, has once again organized a Wittenberg celebration of Pink Zone, a program organized by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA). This is Wittenberg's fourth consecutive year participating in the program.

Pink Zone, a program started in 2007 under the name Think Pink, is the WBCA's "global, unified effort…to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond." More than 1,000 colleges and high schools participate in the program each year, including Wittenberg, which has traditionally recognized breast cancer survivors during an annual halftime tribute ceremony.

The Wittenberg event annually pays tribute to Pam Evans Smith, for whom the arena in the university's HPER Center was named on Feb. 2, 2008. As always, T-shirts will be sold throughout the event, a breast cancer awareness information table will be set up to educate participants, and donations will be accepted to benefit Wittenberg's Pam Evans Smith Memorial Fund. In addition, flyers advertising the annual Pam Evans Smith Memorial 5K Walk/Run will be distributed.

Created one month after the women's basketball coach with the most wins and highest winning percentage in NCAC history passed away, the fund now has more than $100,000 to provide scholarships to deserving female senior students who demonstrate leadership and academic abilities.

Proceeds from the sale of T-shirts this year will go to the Kay Yow Cancer Research Fund, named for the legendary North Carolina State women's basketball coach who died of the disease in 2009. All eight NCAC women's basketball programs are participating in the T-shirt sale, with a goal of raising $5,000.

Written By: Ryan Maurer

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