Cabrini Women's Hoops A Nationally Ranked Force

By Matt Leon

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- It has been another outstanding season in Radnor for the Division III Cabrini College women's basketball team.

Fresh off a season which saw them win a second consecutive Colonial States Athletic Conference title and also pick up the first NCAA Tournament win in program history, the Cavaliers are 18-3 this season and they have won 12 straight games. They also are currently ranked 25th in the country in the latest USA Today Coaches Poll.

"I guess it was right around December when things kind of started to click," Cabrini head coach Kate Pearson tells KYW Newsradio. "We lost a core group of seniors last year who were a big part of kind of the rebuild here at Cabrini. Started off the season 0-2 and I think part of that was us just kind of trying to find our identity again, because we returned a big core of kids who were a part of the program the last two years where we'd been successful. And I think it was just putting the parts in the right places."

Listen to Kate Pearson with KYW's Matt Leon:

A big reason for Cabrini's success is smothering defense. The Cavaliers hold opponents to 33% shooting from the field and just 47.5 points per game.

"Our players have really taken that as their own identity," Pearson says. "We have a couple kids who, that is where they really like to play and do a lot of the little things and work really hard and try to create some offense from that."

Cabrini also has a very special talent in senior forward Amber Keys. The 5'10" Phoenixville High School product is averaging a team leading double-double this season, 16.9 points and 10.3 rebounds a game.

"Amber's definitely been a key to our success," Pearson says. "She is one of the most dominant post players, not only our conference, but in the area. She has done tremendous things on her own to kind of get better every year. Last year we had her as a spark off the bench, as somebody that we knew was kind of a weapon that could give us some offense right off the bench. This year her minutes have jumped drastically and she is our go-to player. She's been able to do a lot of things inside the lane but also has developed to be able to shoot from the outside, drive a little bit and her defensive game has really stepped up."

While the Cavaliers are enjoying this success, Pearson says they can't let up because there is still much work to do.

"That's what we try to talk about every day is not getting content," Pearson says, "and making sure when we are coming to practice, we're really pushing each other to get better and to focus on the things, every team can get better in certain areas. We talk about not letting down and our goal is to make sure that we repeat in the conference, we want to have an opportunity to go to the NCAA Tournament and compete nationally, but we try to just focus on one game at a time and not looking too far ahead."

Cabrini returns to the court Saturday afternoon when they travel to Allentown to visit Cedar Crest College.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.