Preview: Mentor Cardinals vs. Shaker Heights Red Raiders
Mentor is 8-2 against Shaker Heights since February of 2016, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. The Mentor Cardinals will head out on the road to square off against the Shaker Heights Red Raiders at 7:30 p.m. One thing working in Mentor's favor is that they have posted big point totals every time they've taken the court this season.
While it was all tied up 40-40 at halftime, Mentor was not quite Lutheran East's equal in the second half on Tuesday. They took a 95-81 bruising from the Falcons. While losing is never fun, Mentor can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 40th, while Lutheran East is ranked seventh).
Despite the defeat, Mentor got a solid performance out of Ian Ioppolo, who dropped a double-double on 33 points and 12 rebounds. Ioppolo is crushing the point category: he's posted at least 18 every time he's taken the court this season. The team also got some help courtesy of Matthew Biddell, who scored 19 points along with five assists and five rebounds.
Meanwhile, Shaker Heights' recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Friday after their tenth straight defeat. They took a 64-58 hit to the loss column at the hands of Euclid. Having run the score up that high, both teams probably have some extra defensive drills coming up.
Mentor's loss dropped their record down to 11-7. As for Shaker Heights, their defeat was their sixth straight at home, which dropped their record down to 3-16.
Mentor took their win against Shaker Heights when the teams last played back in January by a conclusive 87-63. The rematch might be a little tougher for Mentor since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
