D-III Cabrini Takes To Road To Challenge D-I Lehigh

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It will be a tough challenge tonight for the Division III Cabrini University men's basketball team.

The Cavaliers will head up to Bethlehem and jump up a couple of levels to visit Division I Lehigh University. This will be the first match-up with a Division I program for Cabrini since the 1993-94 season when the Cavaliers lost to Radford and Maryland Eastern Shore.

Cabrini head coach Tim McDonald talks about how this match-up came together.

"I know their assistant coach Harry Morra very well," McDonald tells KYW Newsradio. "It was late in August, they were looking for a Division III game and we were trying to fill out our schedule, we needed one more game. He gave me a call to see if we would be interested and (I) figured, why not."

Listen to the entire interview with Cabrini head coach Tim McDonald

Cabrini, located in Radnor, is one of the top Division III programs in the region and they bring a 5-2 record into this one.

"We have a good group," McDonald says. "We have a bunch of guys returning from last year, we had 13 returners. So being able to carry over from how we started to build last year was a big thing for us. We've played very well on the defensive end, which has really helped us."

The Cavaliers have a very special player in junior forward Tyheim Monroe. The 6'6" Olney Charter High School product is averaging 24.3 points and 16.3 rebounds a game. He also has one of the most remarkable streaks going in all of college basketball. He has logged a double-double in 34 straight games.

"He's been great ever since the first day he stepped on campus," McDonald says.

Cabrini will face a Lehigh team that is 5-5. The Mountain Hawks are led by center Tim Kempton. The 6'10" senior is also averaging a double-double, 22.8 points and 10.4 rebounds a night.

McDonald talks about how they will approach this game.

"We want to compete for 40 minutes," he says. "Execute our stuff, play as hard as we can, have fun with it. We want to make sure that we go out, have a great experience with it, but we also want to make sure that we compete for 40 minutes and let the score take care of itself."

Tonight's game gets underway at 7:00pm.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattLeonKYW.