SPORTS BRIEFS: Wednesday, March 17, 1999

Neither Yale hoops coach to return next season Kuchen is the second Ivy men's coach to resign this year, following Brown's Frank "Happy" Dobbs, who announced his resignation last month. Kuchen's announcement comes one week after Yale women's coach Cecelia DeMarco announced her retirement after 18 seasons as a head coach, nine of which were at Yale. She ends her career with a 243-218 record and joins Penn's Julie Soriero as the second Ivy women's coach to resign this year. Kuchen leaves the Elis as the second-winningest coach in school history, finishing with a 151-189 record. His best season in New Haven, Conn., came in 1989-90 when Yale had a 19-7 overall record and went 10-4 in the Ivies to finish second behind Princeton. This past year, Yale compiled a miserable 4-22 mark and spent time as the lowest ranked team in Division I in the Ratings Percentage Index. But despite ending up in the Ivy League basement with a 2-12 record, the Elis did shock then-first place Princeton on February 12 by pulling out a 60-58 win in double overtime. The upset ended the Tigers' 35-game Ivy League winning streak and dropped them into a first-place tie with Penn. -- Rick Haggerty Dartmouth W. Hoops loses in first round of Tournament The Penn men's basketball team was not the only Ivy League team to bow out in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Like the Quakers, the Dartmouth women's team lost by 14 points in its first game of the Tournament, falling at Rutgers, 84-70. The Big Green (19-9), seeded 14th in the East, just could not keep up with the Scarlet Knights (27-5). Rutgers outrebounded Dartmouth 42-34 and shot 54.1 percent from the field. The Big Green was only able to connect on 35.5 percent of its shots. The Scarlet Knights scored the first 12 points of the game and led 42-14 before Dartmouth pulled off a 15-7 run to enter halftime trailing, 49-29. Dartmouth's Courtney Banghart led all scorers with 19 points, which came almost entirely from her six three-pointers. The Big Green earned the berth by defeating co-champ Princeton 66-49 in a one-game playoff on March 6. Penn forced the tie by upsetting the first-place Tigers 71-65 in the regular season finale at Jadwin Gymnasium. R.H.