According to the old adage, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.

Friday night at Oak Hills, the Middletown boys basketball team edited the saying a bit.

It seems a strong middle sometimes is enough.

The teams slogged through the first quarter, combining to go 5-for-21 from the floor while turning the ball over 11 times. The Middies emerged with a 7-6 lead.

“It was a slow one,” Middletown’s Vincent Edwards said after leading the Middies with 13 points and 11 rebounds. “It’s not one I would have wanted to sit in the stands and watch, but we grinded it out.”

After the slow start, Middletown connected on 17 of its final 30 shots in moving to 8-6 overall and 5-2 in the Greater Miami Conference with the 56-47 win.

Combined with losses by Lakota East and Sycamore, the Middies boarded the bus home in a three-way tie atop the GMC.

While the Middies were heating up from the field, the defense was stifling the Highlanders. Oak Hills shot 8-for-36 from the floor in the first three quarters before connecting on 10 of 17 in the final quarter.

“We had a great defensive mindset,” Middletown coach Josh Andrews said. “We talked a lot about doing whatever it takes. Whatever it takes mentally and physically; we got back to that and we battled for each other.”

Middletown opened the second half with a 9-2 run to break the game open before withstanding an Oak Hills comeback in the final three minutes. Chance Sorrell opened the half with two of his 12 points with Edwards closing the run with 3:05 left in the third and Middletown up 32-15. The lead grew to 49-29, with 3:20 left in the game on three of Kylan Jackson’s 12 points, but the Highlanders came back.

Oak Hills closed with a 18-7 run to cut the final margin to nine.

“I think we lose focus,” Edwards said. “We get up and it gets to the point where we think it’s over. Coach has been preaching to us finish, finish, finish and it is something that could come back and hurt us when we try to make a run in March.”

Oak Hills took a 13-11 lead with 3:42 left in the half, but the Middies got a big spark off the bench from 5-foot-11 senior Heshimu Jones. Jones got the Middies the lead back with a trey with 3:26 left before dishing a no-look pass to Sorrell for a basket and closed the half with his second 3 from the left corner with just two ticks left for a 23-13 Middletown lead.

“Heshimu (Jones) and Justin (Anderson) have been practice warriors and they don’t always get the rewards on game night,” Andrews said. “But they came in and played with poise and passion, and it was contagious.”

Middletown closed the half hitting six of nine shots in the second quarter while the Highlanders were 2-for-9 in the second quarter and 5-for-24 for the half, including 1-for-10 from beyond the arc.

“You have to credit our guys,” Andrews said. “It was tough, but we battled the whole way. We just have to finish games better. We have to be determined to play to our ability for 32 minutes instead of 27 minutes.”