Dartmouth 63, Princeton 48

3/12/2006 6:35 PM

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - Dartmouth made itself right at home at Yale this weekend.

The Big Green won the Ivy League playoff and earned their second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament Sunday with a 63-48 victory over Princeton.

Jeannie Cullen scored 17 points and Krista Perry added 14 points and nine rebounds for Dartmouth (23-6). Angie Soriaga had 13 points and three assists.

Dartmouth, Princeton and Brown finished in an unprecedented three-way tie for first place during the regular season (12-2), prompting a playoff to decide the NCAA berth. Dartmouth beat Brown 73-62 Friday for the right to play Princeton, which won a coin flip to earn a bye.

``I think it helped that we've been here for three or four days,'' Dartmouth's Jeannie Cullen said. ``We were sad to check out of our hotel today.''

The Big Green led 31-20 at halftime and fended off a second-half charge from Princeton (21-7), which pulled within three points with 9:56 remaining.

Becky Brown had 19 points and eight rebounds for Princeton and Meagan Cowher had 12 points and eight rebounds. Cowher, a sophomore forward, is the daughter of Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher, who attended Sunday's game.

Dartmouth had to deal with adversity from the start of the season after losing leading scorer Elise Morrison to a season-ending foot injury in November.

``I'm just so proud of them,'' Dartmouth coach Chris Wielgus said. ``They love the game of basketball and it shows. The last couple of games they just brought me along for the ride.''

Princeton set a program record for victories this season, but committed 19 turnovers on Sunday.

``If we played to seven (games), maybe we'd pull it out,'' Princeton coach Richard Barron said. ``But they were better than us today.''

Princeton and Dartmouth split their two meetings during the regular season.

Last year the Big Green also took part in a playoff, defeating Harvard. Dartmouth then lost to Connecticut 95-47 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.