Photo Courtesy of Mark Campbell

NEWARK, Del. -- Hoops fans wear your pink and help the University of Delaware pack the Bob Carpenter Center on Sunday, Feb. 14 at 12 p.m. for the annual Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Pink Zone® breast cancer awareness game. The Blue Hens will take on the Panthers of Georgia State University during their 1,000th program game while highlighting their home white uniforms with pink accents.

Bring the ladies you love and enjoy the CAA action with in-game promotions, giveaways from the UD Alumni Association, and special Valentine’s Day prize drawings. Giveaways will include trinkets such as “Let’s Go Hens!” roller banners and pink pom-poms. Also, stick around for post-game autographs from the entire women’s basketball squad.

Sunday’s contest doubles as Girl Scout day enabling troops to purchase special discounted tickets in advance.

The UDairy Creamery and the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition will be present on the concourse throughout the game to raise funds for and distribute information about breast cancer.

The UDairy Creamery is featuring two special flavors in celebration of the Pink Zone game. Proceeds from “Pink Ribbon Strawberry” will be donated to the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund, while proceeds from the sale of all Coach’s Cookies and Cream, head coach Tina Martin’s favorite flavor, will be donated to the University of Delaware Athletic Fund. UDairy ice cream is made with milk from the cows at the University of Delaware’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

A variety of entertainment is scheduled to highlight the days’ events. The UD a capella group, Vocal Point, will be performing the national anthem and singing in the lobby prior to tip-off, while a performance by the UD Dance Team alongside members of the Blue Hen football squad will occur at intermission.

Pink tie-dyed t-shirts will be available to the first 600 UD students in attendance and one dollar hot dogs will be available to any student wearing yellow or pink tie-dyed Cockpit t-shirts. All students must have a valid student ID, a valid student ticket for the student section (sections 11-14), and be wearing the yellow tie-dyed Cockpit t-shirt in order to be eligible for a pink shirt. Please note that all UD student tickets and pink Cockpit t-shirts are subject to availability and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.

Pack the House is in its third season and is an initiative that has NCAA members compete against schools in their own conference as well as all NCAA Division I schools for a chance to be the NCAA Pack the House Challenge Champion. The NCAA will make a $500 donation to a non-profit organization of each institution’s choice, subject to approval by the NCAA, on behalf of each of the 33 conference winners.

The WBCA Pink Zone® initiative is a global, unified effort for the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s nation of coaches to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond. The WBCA began the WBCA Pink Zone®, formerly known as “Think Pink”, in 2007 as an initiative to raise breast cancer awareness. 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.