Basketball Game Preview: Cleveland Central Catholic Ironmen vs. Cornerstone Christian Patriots

Cleveland Central Catholic has won four straight games at home, while Cornerstone Christian has won four straight on the road, but those streaks won't matter much on Thursday. The Cleveland Central Catholic Ironmen will host the Cornerstone Christian Patriots at 7:30 p.m.

Last Monday, Cleveland Central Catholic lost to Garfield Heights on the road by a 63-49 margin. While losing is never fun, the Ironmen can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 128th, while the Bulldogs are ranked eighth).

Meanwhile, Cornerstone Christian's contest on Thursday was close up to the half, which is when they kicked things up a notch. They really took it to Medina Christian Academy for the full four quarters, racking up an 87-57 win. The Patriots have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won eight matches by 21 points or more this season.

Cleveland Central Catholic better keep an eye on Quinn Kwasniak. He was instrumental in Cornerstone Christian's win, almost dropping a triple-double with 57 points, ten boards, and nine assists. The game was Kwasniak's 18th in a row with at least 17 points. The team also got some help courtesy of Darrien Davis, who dropped a double-double with 14 points and 15 rebounds.

Cornerstone Christian has been performing well recently as they've won ten of their last 12 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 14-5 record this season. A key ingredient in that success has been their performance when it comes to three-point shooting accuracy: their three-point shooting accuracy was 38% in those games and 28.8% outside of them. As for Cleveland Central Catholic, their loss dropped their record down to 13-6.

Cleveland Central Catholic couldn't quite finish off Cornerstone Christian in their previous meeting back in February of 2024 and fell 67-65. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Kwasniak, who went 12 for 26 en route to 36 points and eight boards. Now that Cleveland Central Catholic knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.