Basketball Game Preview: Mentor Cardinals vs. Shaker Heights Red Raiders

Mentor has gone 8-2 against Shaker Heights recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. The Mentor Cardinals will challenge the Shaker Heights Red Raiders at 7:30 p.m. One thing working in Mentor's favor is that they have posted at least 55 points every time they've taken the court this season.

Last Saturday, Mentor was able to grind out a solid win over Villa Angela-St. Joseph, taking the game 81-68.

Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Mentor to victory, but perhaps none more so than Kobe Frasure-Azzano, who dropped a double-double on 17 points and 11 rebounds. Frasure-Azzano has been hot recently, having posted ten or more boards the last four times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Jack Kennedy, who posted 15 points in addition to seven assists and three steals.

Mentor smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 23 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive boards in 40 consecutive matchups dating back to last season.

Meanwhile, Shaker Heights earned a 66-57 victory over Revere on Tuesday.

Shaker Heights' win ended a five-game drought at home and bumped them up to 3-12. As for Mentor, they pushed their record up to 10-4 with the victory, which was their fourth straight at home.

Mentor strolled past Shaker Heights in their previous meeting back in December of 2024 by a score of 88-73. The rematch might be a little tougher for Mentor since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.