Almost two weeks ago in front of a record crowd of 3,141, the Sam Houston State Bearkats defeated the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Crusaders by the score of 87-53 at the Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum.

“The atmosphere was great,” head coach Brenda Nichols said. “Anytime our players comes out to that type of atmosphere, it motivates them.”

The game was part of “Pack The House” challenge that is sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and 184 Division I institutions participates in the challenge. It is an initiative to increase fan support for women’s basketball events and whoever draws the most fan support are awarded $500 dollars and the winning institution donates the money to a non-profit organization of their choice.

“It’s a wonderful experience,” athletic director Bobby Williams said. “Every year that we had it, we walk out of here with your ears ringing, but it’s an exciting time and it gets our team fired up as well.”

The event draw kids from Walker County area schools to watch a women’s college basketball game.

Sam Houston has won the contest in the past two out of three seasons that they have participated in the Southland Conference region. In the first year, they drew a crowd of 2,261. The second year saw an increase of 2,456. Then last year, they drew a crowd of 2,503 and this year contests brought a crowd of 3,141, the largest crowd to watch a Bearkats women’s basketball contest.

Though the Crusaders lost the game, they felt fortunate to have participated in the event.

“I thought that it was great,” assistant coach Carlos Marbot said. “Anytime you can get young kids to a game and get them all excited about basketball, you can grow the sport.”

“Pack the House” will run from October 30 to March 5, 2012 during the season at selected member institutions in the NCAA Division I.