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The SEC is the toughest conference in women's college basketball and two of the heavyweights will face each other on Thursday night in one of the biggest regular-season games of the season. No. 2 South Carolina is hosting No. 4 Texas in a rematch of the Players Era championship in November, and this game could be a huge resume booster when March comes around.

These opponents know each other well, as this will be their sixth meeting in 369 days. In all of these games, both teams have been ranked in the AP top five.

South Carolina is 17-1 this season, with the Gamecocks' lone loss coming at the hands of the Longhorns in November. That game did not count toward their SEC record, which means Dawn Staley's team is still undefeated in conference play. Meanwhile, Texas is 18-1 overall and 3-1 in SEC play after a loss to LSU last weekend. Here is everything you need to know ahead of this top five matchup.

Where to watch No. 4 Texas at No. 2 South Carolina

Date: Thursday, Jan. 15 | Time: 7 p.m. ET
Location: Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, South Carolina
TV: ESPN2

How Texas won in November

South Carolina leads this series 5-4 dating back to 1988, including a win at the Final Four last April. However, Texas took the most recent victory with a last-second shot by Rori Harmon at the Players Era championship game in Las Vegas.

At that point, South Carolina was ranked No. 2 and Texas was No. 4. The Longhorns had defeated then-No. 3 UCLA the previous day, which meant they became the first team in at least 25 years to defeat two top-three ranked opponents in back-to-back games.

Texas only used a seven-player rotation against South Carolina due to injuries, but that was all the Longhorns needed. Harmon finished the game with only six points, but she was invaluable to her team's offense with nine assists. Madison Booker had 16 points and 9 rebounds, while Jordan Lee led all scorers with 19 points.

Four South Carolina players scored in double figures, led by 16 points from Ta'Niya Latson. Madina Okot also stood out with a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Can Texas 'get ready' and bounce back after LSU loss on Sunday and Vic Schaefer's post-game rant?

Texas is no longer undefeated after suffering a 70-65 loss to LSU last weekend. Although the Longhorns' offense has seen a significant boost from last season, they struggled mightily in Baton Rouge. Vic Shaefer's team has one of the top assists/turnover ratios in the country, but on Sunday, his team registered a season-high 17 turnovers and just 9 assists.

Mikaylah Williams severely limited Booker in the first half. Meanwhile, Lee only made three field goals and Harmon sat out the fourth quarter. 

During the postgame press conference, Booker said her team needed to figure out how to get ready for South Carolina because they didn't show they were prepared on Sunday. Schaefer was also vocal about disliking a schedule in which they had to play LSU and South Carolina back-to-back on the road. 

Defense and rebounding will be key

One of the things that helped LSU beat Texas was winning the rebounding battle 44-35. Staley highlighted this as one of the key areas that helped the Tigers and also something she wants her team to focus on.

Defense will also be key as these are two teams in the top 15 nationally in scoring defense. Their offenses have been productive against other opponents, but this won't necessarily be a high-scoring affair. Texas' lowest scoring games this season have been against top SEC opponents South Carolina (66-64 win) and LSU (70-65 loss). As for the Gamecocks, they only reached 65 points in wins against Clemson and Georgia, but their 66-64 loss to Texas was a season low.

"They make it hard," Staley said. "They make it hard for you to make entry passes. Anywhere on the floor. Anywhere. For us, we just have to be disciplined. Disciplined as to the way that we want to play defense and not give them multiple ways of coming off screens. You gotta give them one direction, and that's hard enough to guard, but when you give them options you are going to be running all over the place expending energy that we need on the defensive side of the ball, as well as the offensive side of the ball."