It has been a rollercoaster ride for the Middletown boys basketball team this season.

The Middies had seemed to work out the kinks over the holidays in Florida, but they entered Friday’s showdown at Wade E. Miller Gymnasium with Lakota West on a three-game skid that had seen them fall out of first place in the conference.

After a bit of a sputter out of the gate, the Middies hit on all cylinders in crunch time, breaking open a tied game midway through the fourth quarter for a 62-58 win.

It pushed the Middies back over .500 at 10-9 and moved them back into a four-way tie for the GMC lead at 7-4.

“We were warriors and we got after it for 32 minutes,” Middletown coach Josh Andrews said. “Every team in this league is good and you better bring your A game every night. If you bring your B game, you better be the team getting all the hustle plays and that was us tonight because that wasn’t our A game.”

After West nursed a 33-31 at the break, Middletown tied it 33-33 on a basket by Vincent Edwards with 7:02 left in the third quarter. Over the next nine minutes the teams swapped the lead eight times, with the score being knotted five other times before the Middies made their run.

Denarius Dean gave the Middies the lead for good on a short jumper with 5:40 left in the contest to spark a 9-0 run. A putback by Chance Sorrell with 3:29 remaining made it 56-47.

Lakota West, however, showed why it had won seven of eight since losing standout Monty Boykins in late December at Fairfield with a late-game push of its own.

Down 59-53 with 30 seconds remaining, Malik Grove hit a 3-pointer and Ethan Thomas followed with a jumper in the lane to trim the deficit to 59-58 with 21 seconds left. After a Dean free throw pushed the lead back to 60-58, Jalin Marshall recorded a steal with six ticks left, got fouled and hit both free throws to seal the win.

West, behind three 3-pointers, opened a 17-11 lead after the first quarter and withstood a late rally in the second to enter the break up 33-30 thanks to a 5-0 run in the middle of the quarter by Ali Barnes (14 points). Back-to-back baskets by Zach Hicks and Tyler Bowling gave West a 33-27 lead with 1:45 left in the half.

Middletown was paced by 19 points by Sorrell with Edwards adding 17 and Marshall 12. West got 13 points from Grove and 11 from Williams.