A&M-Commerce women's basketball host TWU, "Pink Zone" game

The Texas A&M University-Commerce women's basketball team is in action this weekend as they welcome Texas Woman's University to the A&M-Commerce Field House on Saturday, Feb. 20. The game, scheduled to start at 2 p.m., is the second to last home game for the Lions this season and is the Women's Basketball Coaches Association Pink Zone game, which raises awareness for breast cancer.

Head Coach Nicole Anderson's team is currently on a nine game losing streak after losing earlier in the week to the University of Central Oklahoma 92-59. Anderson said she's seen what her team can do, and knows what they need to do in order to overcome TWU.

"We're going to have to play super aggressive defense against them, and do a great job rebounding," she said. "We turned the ball over a ton the last time we played them, and they were more aggressive than we were. So, if that happens it won't be pretty, but I have a good feeling we're going to come out and play a lot better than we did the first time."

This confidence appears to be translating through to the players. Senior Ashley Murphy has been on a run of good form lately, scoring in double digits for the last three games. She said her motivation is down to Anderson's influence.

"She's really trying to push us to go harder," Murphy said. "I'm feeding off of her energy and just going out there playing hard for her. She really wants us to give it our all these last couple of games, so that's what I'm trying to do."

Murphy is averaging 9.6 points per game, and a team-high 7.8 rebounds per game.

"I'm pumped about the game," Murphy said. "Texas Woman's are a very up-tempo team, and I think we can run with them. So, I'm pretty confident about the game tomorrow."

Anderson said while defense is very important in any game, it is especially important for any success the Lions may have.

"Our defense generates offense for us, and whenever we do play good, strong, solid defense we generally play better," she said. "Offensively we get easy baskets, we're able to score, we have a little bit better rhythm, but when we don't and we try to rely on offense we're just not good enough offensively to do that."

Both Anderson and Murphy are expecting the TWU game to feature a positive atmosphere because of the WCBA Pink Zone. Fans are encouraged to wear pink for the game, and there will also be Pink Zone t-shirts available before the game for $5.

"Breast cancer has affected all of us at some point in our lives somehow, someway," Anderson said. "As young women who are trying to become healthy and great citizens in society, it's just another way for us to show our support for all those women and those survivors who have had to battle and come back from cancer. What we do out here for basketball is nothing. They have a real contest and a real challenge every day. We just want to show our continued support, not only for those who are currently suffering, but for those in the future and raise awareness and money so we can finally find a cure."

Murphy said she had been personally affected by breast cancer.

"We need a lot of people to come out and support breast cancer," she said. "Breast cancer runs in my family, so I had a couple of people pass away from it. When you get a lot of people together for that cause, it's good."

The last time these two teams met on Jan. 30 in Denton TWU came away with a 106-76 win. The Pioneers are only one of two teams to score in triple digits against A&M-Commerce this season. Sophomore Jessica Hanna is the team's top performer with 14.5 points per game, a .414 field goal percentage, and 4.4 rebounds per game.