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Princeton University
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Dartmouth (Ivy Playoff)
Players Mentioned
Dartmouth Tops Women's Basketball 63-48 for Ivy League's NCAA Tournament Bid
March 12, 2006 | Women's Basketball
March 12, 2006
Box Score
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Princeton's first visit to the NCAA Tournament will have to wait for another season. In an Ivy playoff at Yale on Sunday afternoon, Dartmouth defeated the Tiger women's basketball team 63-48, earning the league's automatic bid to the NCAA's field of 64. Becky Brown led Princeton with 19 points, becoming the third player in program history to cross the 1,600-point mark with 1,608 in her career.
Dartmouth outshot the Tigers 52.3 percent to 38.5 percent in a field goal percentage disparity that started in the first half and Princeton couldn't close over the final 20 minutes. Turnovers were also a problem for the Orange and Black, which had 19 giveaways to 12 for the Big Green.
Dartmouth got out to a 5-0 lead and Princeton led only twice, both by one point with the last advantage coming on a Casey Lockwood layup that gave the Tigers a 17-16 edge with 8:48 left in the half. But Dartmouth's Ashley Taylor hit a three-pointer and Princeton had four turnovers before it got its next bucket. By that point, Dartmouth was ahead 25-19 with 4:24 left in the half and only build on its lead, taking an 31-20 advantage into the locker room.
The Big Green outshot the Tigers 56.5 percent to 44.4 percent in the first half. Coming out of the locker room, the Tigers scored the first six points to cut the Dartmouth edge to five, but the rally stalled there. With the Big Green ahead 41-34 and 12 minutes to go, Ariel Rogers and Meagan Cowher hit back-to-back jumpers to make it a three-point game with 10 minutes left. But that's as close as it got for the Tigers the rest of the way as Dartmouth went on a 9-2 run to take a 10-point lead with 6:37 left. Princeton wasn't able to put together another rally. The loss repeated some unfortunate history for the Tigers, who came this close to the NCAA Tournament last in 1999. Against Dartmouth at Yale, Princeton lost a 66-49 game that season.
Behind Brown's 19 points, Cowher had 12 and the two of them along with Lockwood each had eight boards to lead the team as the Tigers outrebounded their foes 31-26 and had 14 second-chance boards. For Dartmouth, Jeannie Cullen had 17 points, Krista Perry had 14 and Angie Soriaga had 13. In the meeting at Dartmouth on Feb. 24, the Tigers were able to limit the nation's No. 1 three-point shooting team to 1 for 7 from distance. On Sunday, Dartmouth entered as the nation's second-most accurate team from beyond the arc but didn't exploit it, hitting 4 of 13 threes. Instead, Cullen and Soriaga, who had 40 points combined at Jadwin Gym and only nine in the meeting at Dartmouth, loaded up on two-point field goals and Perry had her biggest impact of the three Princeton-Dartmouth contests on Sunday.
Princeton broke program records with 21 overall wins and 12 victories in the league and may be rewarded with a bid to the Women's National Invitation Tournament. That tournament takes 40 schools and will announce its draw late Monday night. The Tigers were part of the event in 1996.