RUSTON, La. – One of the most storied rivalries in the history of women's basketball will write another chapter when Louisiana Tech hosts Old Dominion Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Thomas Assembly Center.
               
The game has a Red Tag-Red Out promotion attached to it as fans wearing red can purchase discounted tickets, including $6 general admission (blue seats) and $10 reserved tickets (red section). Discounted tickets can only be purchased at the doors of the TAC Thursday (doors open at 5 p.m.).
               
It will be the 26^th meeting between the two teams in a series that dates back to the 1979 AIAW National Championship game in Greensboro, North Carolina – a game the Lady Monarchs won 75-65.

The series has not disappointed over the years. Tech has won 17 of the previous 25 meetings with 18 of those meetings occurring when at least one of the teams was ranked in the Top 10 in the country.

Some of the most memorable games between two of the top eight winning programs in the history of women's basketball include:

• #4 LA Tech 59, #1 ODU 57 (1979-80): The Lady Techsters rallied from a 13-point deficit to defeat the top-ranked team in the country at Madison Square Garden in New York. Tech (16-1) handed ODU (10-1) its first loss of the season behind 17 points from Janice Mulford and 15 from Pam Kelly. Inge Nissen and Nancy Lieberman led ODU with 14 points each.
• #7 ODU 61, #1 LA Tech 58 (1981-82): Louisiana Tech saw its Division I record 54-game winning streak stopped at the Scope in Norfolk, Virginia. Tech led by 10 in first half before ODU rallied behind All-American Anne Donovan. Tech hit just 8-of-38 field goals in the second half of the loss.
• #2 LA Tech 72, ODU 71 (1988-89): Unraked Old Dominion built a 51-30 lead over the Lady Techsters with 14 minutes to play at the Thomas Assembly Center before LA Tech rallied. Tech trailed 71-65 with 35 seconds to play in the game before scoring the final seven points, including the game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer by Paulette Stall. It is still the largest come-from-behind win in Lady Techster history.

The two old rivals become Conference USA foes in 2013 and the Monarchs have won three of the five meetings since then. Tech defeated ODU 59-45 in Ruston last season.

Old Dominion (11-5, 2-2 C-USA) has already eclipsed its win total from all of last year when the Monarchs recorded only eight victories in Nikki McCray-Penson's first year as the head coach. ODU boasts three double digit scorers in Victoria Morris (12.6 ppg, 38-114 three-pointers), Ajah Wayne (12.3 ppg, 9.1 rpg) and Taylor Edwards (11.6 ppg, 67 assists).

Louisiana Tech (9-8, 1-3 C-USA) needs to protect its home court this week after dropping a pair of home contest against Rice and North Texas to start league play. Tech recorded an impressive victory over UAB on the road last week before getting handled at Middle Tennessee in the second game of the road swing.

Kierra Anthony continues her assault on the record books, averaging 24.2 points per game, including 18 straight double digit scoring games dating back to last year. Anthony needs 27 more points to move into the Top 20 in career scoring at Louisiana Tech as she enters Thursday's game No. 22 with 1,462.

The contest can be heard on the LA Tech Sports Network on KNBB 97.7 FM and KJVC 92.7 FM with the pregame show set to start at 6 p.m. A live video stream of the game can be accessed through a paid subscription to CUSATV.com.