Daily Cup of City 6 (1/31/14)

By Sean Kennedy

Today’s Action

7:00 PM: Pennsylvania (4-11, 1-0 Ivy) @ Dartmouth (7-9, 0-2 Ivy)

Things haven’t gone exactly as hoped for the Quakers this season, but all of that can change with a strong season in conference play. After their huge upset victory against Princeton over two weeks ago, Penn enters the main stretch of their Ivy League play still 1-0 in conference and ready to show people that their poor start to the season wasn’t truly representative of the talent level they posses. Friday’s opponent is a Dartmouth team struggling itself, having lost 5 straight contests.

Not only has the Big Green in a slump coming into this game, but they will be without leading scorer and rebounder Gabas Maldunas. The big man from Lithuania will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL, obviously a huge blow for a Darmouth team that has started conference play with a pair of blowout losses at the hands of Harvard. Maldunas’ injury puts added pressure on sophomore Connor Boehm, who at 6’7″, is both the team’s second leading scoring and rebounder. The other scoring option will be Alex Mitola, who is the most impactful three-point shooter for Dartmouth at 42% on the season. Given that the Big Green have only had one full game to adjust to playing without their best player, Penn has a great chance to go in and steal a road victory in Ivy league play tonight.