PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS TODAY (JUST $5 WITH PROMO CODE ESPNU)

CHARLOTTE – The eyes of the college basketball world will be on Radford, Virginia next week as the Highlanders will take on rival UNC Asheville in front of a national audience on ESPNU.

With the move to the national stage, tip for the highly anticipated showdown has been moved to Thursday, February 20. Start time will remain at 7 PM ET inside the Dedmon Center.

To celebrate the move to national prime time, Radford Athletics will offer tickets for just $5 to Highlander Nation, that includes every seat in the building. Fans and supporters can take advantage of this exclusive offer by heading to RadfordTickets.com and using coupon code "ESPNU" at checkout. All fans that already have tickets dated for the original February 19 date will be honored for the national TV contest as well.

ESPNU and the Big South Conference announced the showdown between the Highlanders and Bulldogs will be the fifth Big South Wildcard broadcast of the 2024-25 campaign. It is the second national treatment for Radford so far this season as the Highlanders opened the conference campaign at High Point on ESPNU back on January 2.

The showdown will mark the fifth between the two programs on ESPNU and the first meeting on national TV in two years. It will also be the 18th Big South ESPNU Wildcard game for Radford all-time.

The national audience will be treated to two of the best teams in the conference this year, as UNC Asheville sits in second overall at 8-2 in Big South play entering Wednesday night while Radford is right behind in fourth at 6-5.

The Highlanders will be looking for revenge as the Bulldogs enter Thursday night on a six-game winning streak against Radford that dates back to January 22, 2022. The Highlanders are also one of the best teams in the country at home this season, with an 8-2 mark inside Dedmon. Radford's .800 home winning percentage sits just outside the top 100 teams in all of NCAA Division I.

The Highlanders are 3-1 against the Bulldogs on ESPNU contests all-time.

This is the 12th year of the Big South's ESPNU Wildcard series, which again features six Thursday prime time broadcasts this year. A total of 56 games have been played in the series that began in 2013-14.

Home teams are 36-20 overall in the Big South Wildcard series and the 56 contests have been decided by an average of just 9.52 points, with 32 (57.1 percent) of those games being decided by single digits.

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