The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Women's Basketball team kicks off the new year with a stretch of four consecutive road games that begins on Thursday, January 4 at the Chartway Arena in Norfolk, Virginia with a 5:30 p.m. (CST) contest against Old Dominion.

Louisiana (4-6, 0-1 SBC) steps outside the state of Louisiana for the first time since November 9 (at Auburn) and plays its first road game since December 10 (at LSU).

The Cajuns seek to rebound from a 69-56 conference-opening loss to App State last Saturday, playing in their SBC road opener. The Monarchs (9-2, 1-0 SBC) are playing their SBC home opener and are coming off a 62-56 win on the road at South Alabama in the conference opener last weekend.

Meeting for just the second time ever in both program's histories, which date back to the 1970s, it's the first matchup to be played in Norfolk at Chartway Arena. The Cajuns claimed the initial series and SBC meeting, 61-51, last January at the Cajundome.

Thursday's UL-ODU contest can be viewed on ESPN+ while radio coverage is available in the Acadiana region on The GOAT 103.3 FM and 1420 AM and worldwide on the Varsity Network.

It'll be a matchup to determine which defense prevails. Both the Cajuns and the Monarchs enter the game yielding 60 points or less this season – ODU leads the Sun Belt in scoring defense at 52.4 points per game.

Louisiana regains an important piece to its lineup as leading scorer and leading rebounder Tamera Johnson returns to the court. Johnson missed the last two games with a nose injury suffered vs. North Texas (Dec. 17).

Cajuns guard Lanay Wheaton returns to Norfolk for the first time since she began her collegiate career in the 2020-21 season with ODU. Last season, she scored a game-high 20 points in the win over the Monarchs.

Johnson at 13.3 points per game and Brandi Williams at 12.0 points per game lead the Cajuns offense. Johnson is the top rebounder with 65 total at a rate of 8.1 per game, while Williams has already knocked down 19 triples.

Third-year starting point guard Destiny Rice is averaging nine-plus points per game on 46 percent shooting and Utah State transfer Tamiah Robinson leads with 23 assists and is second in rebounds (39).

Ranked 16th in the latest CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll, ODU is paced by on offense by En'Dya Buford with 10.9 points per game. Buford and Mimi McCollister (5.2 ppg) have made 26 triples between the two of them and Simone Cunningham (5.0 ppg) is the Monarchs' top rebounder with 7.0 boards per outing. On defense, Kaye Clark is averaging 3.5 steals per game, good for seventh in the nation.