UL - Louisiana begins the second half of its four-game homestand on Thursday, Dec. 18 hosting North Texas at 7:15 p.m., in the CAJUNDOME. It’s the second half of a doubleheader with the UL-NT women’s teams.
● The Ragin’ Cajuns are seeking a 2-0 start to Sun Belt play for the second consecutive season (began 2007-08 season 4-0 in league play).
● Louisiana has won four of five games overall. In the CAJUNDOME, the Ragin’ Cajuns have won four straight.
● Tonight’s meeting is the 27th all-time between the Cajuns and Mean Green and 11th in the CAJUNDOME. UL is 9-1 vs. NT in the ‘DOME.
● Louisiana’s last two wins have come by at least 27 points. The last time a UL team won back-to-back games by 20-plus points was Dec. 11-18, 2002 when the Cajuns won three straight by that margin (117-57 vs. La. College [+60], 99-66 vs. Alcorn State [+33] & 81-55 vs. Bethune-Cookman [+26]).
● In the last two games, Travis Bureau averaged 14.5 points and shot 86 percent in the first half alone.
● The Ragin’ Cajuns shot above 50 percent in the last two games and were a combined 69-of-122 (56.6 percent) in the LC and ULM games.

OFF TO A GREAT START
● Louisiana began its 18th season of Sun Belt competition on Monday with an 86-58 victory over ULM. It was the largest margin of victory in a Sun Belt opener since the 1991-92 opener when the Cajuns downed Jacksonville 96-66.
● UL won its Sun Belt opener for the second straight season. The Cajuns improved to 13-5 all-time in SBC openers and 5-3 when the opener is in the CAJUNDOME.

MID-DECEMBER HOMESTAND CONTINUES
● The Ragin’ Cajuns enter the second half of their season-long, four-game homestand with tonight’s game against North Texas.
● Louisiana is 2-0 on the homestand with victories over Louisiana College (85-58) and ULM (86-58).
● The homestand ends Sunday, Dec. 21 with a non-conference game vs. Sam Houston.
● Louisiana has been red-hot during the homestand. The Cajuns are shooting 69-of-122 (.566), outrebounding opponents by an average of 42-26 and averaging 85.5 points.
● Four players are averaging double figures scoring on the homestand: Travis Bureau (16.5), Lamar Roberson (11.5), Chris Gradnigo (11.5) and Ryan McCoy (10.5).

LSU GAME TIME CHANGED
● The University of Louisiana and LSU men’s basketball programs agreed to change the game time of their New Year’s Eve matchup in Baton Rouge to 1:30 p.m. The game was originally scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.
● LSU requested the move to allow the radio broadcast of the football team’s appearance in the Peach Bowl to be aired on the full network and not the Baton Rouge affiliate.

HOME, SWEET DOME
● The 2008-09 campaign marks the 24th season of Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball at the 11,550-seat CAJUNDOME. Louisiana is 223-89 (.715) all-time at the facility.
● In the past 10-plus seasons, Louisiana has posted a 83-28 record in the CAJUNDOME (.748 winning percentage).

LOUISIANA IN SUN BELT CONFERENCE HOME GAMES
● Louisiana is 95-32 (74.8 percent) all-time in Sun Belt Conference games at the CAJUNDOME. In 17 previous seasons, Louisiana has won six or more SBC home games 12 times.

ULM LEFTOVERS
● Louisiana picked up its 24th consecutive win over ULM in the city of Lafayette.
● Travis Bureau led a quartet of Cajuns in double figures scoring with 18 points. He was joined by Lamar Roberson (15), Ryan McCoy (13) and Chris Gradnigo (11).
● Louisiana outscored the Warhawks 30-9 in the final 10 minutes of the game.
● The Cajuns blocked a season-high eight shots – the sixth straight game with at least five blocked shots. UL also recorded a season-best 16 assists.
● Louisiana made 33 field goals, marking the fifth straight game in the CAJUNDOME in which the Cajuns made 25-plus field goals.
● UL outscored ULM 44-24 in the paint and had a 31-8 edge in points off the bench.

LAST TIME VS. NORTH TEXAS (Feb. 28, 2008 in Lafayette – UL won 63-58)
● Randell Daigle torched NT for a career-high-tying 17 points again.
● UL jumped out to an early 12-7 lead. All five starters scored in succession. North Texas came back to tie the game at 19-19 with 5:24 to play.
● The game remained tied with less than two minutes remaining in the first half until the Cajuns went on a 10-3 run to close the first stanza.
● A triple by Adam McCoy cut the Cajuns lead down to seven, 56-49, with 4:22 to play. The Mean Green proceeded to score five of the game’s next six points to drop the Cajuns lead to three points with 90 seconds left.
● Brandon Dison made two free throws at 1:24 to give the Cajuns some breathing room, but a free throw by Kedrick Hogans and a jumper by McCoy made the score 60-58 in favor of UL with only 21.5 seconds remaining. Daigle later added two more freebies in the final 10 seconds.

PLENTY OF OPTIONS TO CHOOSE FROM
● At least nine (9) players have reached double-digit minutes in the last two games.

SERIES HISTORY (LOUISIANA LEADS 15-11)
● Louisiana snapped a four-game losing streak to the Mean Green with a 63-58 victory in last season’s CAJUNDOME meeting.
● The Cajuns are 10-3 all-time at home against the Mean Green and 9-1 at the CAJUNDOME.
● UL leads the series 10-6 in Sun Belt regular season games since NT joined the league in 2000-01. Tonight’s game is the 17th Sun Belt meeting between the two programs.
● Six of the last seven UL wins in the CAJUNDOME have been by double-digits. Louisiana owns seven double-digit victories over NT in Sun Belt play.
● Louisiana’s average margin of victory in CAJUNDOME meetings is 15 points.

UP NEXT FOR LOUISIANA

The Ragin' Cajuns finish their four-game homestand on Sunday, Dec. 21 against Sam Houston State at 5:15 p.m. It's the second half of a doubleheader with the UL-ULM women's teams which tipoff at 3 p.m.

Sam Houston State visits the CAJUNDOME for the first time since the 1993-94 season (Cajuns won 100-66 on Dec. 15, 1993).

The meeting with SHSU is the final non-conference home game of the 2008-09 season.

RaginCajuns.com