At one end of the court, the Middletown High School boys basketball team wasn’t beating itself up after losing to Cincinnati Moeller. At the other end, there was no chest thumping from Moeller after a big win.

Both coaches called Saturday night’s game — a 55-36 Crusaders’ win — a good nonleague challenge for this early in the season. And it was, for a half anyway.

Middletown, which trailed 22-21 at halftime, suffered through a shooting drought that lasted 12 minutes, 23 seconds without a basket in the second half. That enabled Moeller to gradually pull away with physical play inside that the Middies didn’t match. Middletown was outrebounded 35-22 overall and 16-5 in the second half.

“In the second half I don’t know if we were tired mentally or physically or not,” Middletown coach Josh Andrews said. “I’m high on my guys and I love them. We’re going to get better.”

Middletown lost to Moeller 55-38 last December, too, but beat them 41-37 in the Division I regional semifinals in March. That certainly wasn’t lost on Moeller coach Carl Kremer.

“We’re pleased, but it’s just a game in December,” Kremer said. “We know they are one of the best teams in Southwest Ohio. If we’re fortunate we’ll get to see them again.”

After scoring 29 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in a big Greater Miami Conference win over Fairfield on Friday, Middletown junior Vincent Edwards struggled with seven points and eight rebounds, both season lows. He shot 1-for-10 from the field but did make all five of his free throws. He entered the game averaging a GMC-leading 21 points and 13 rebounds.

Middletown shot 12-of-39 (30.8 percent) for the game and made just 2-of-12 (16.7 percent) from three-point range. Jalin Marshall led the Middies with 13 points and Mark Fayne added eight. Moeller finished 22-of-49 (44.9 percent) from the field.

Two wins this weekend would have been nice for Middletown. But the Middies got the one they wanted with that victory over a Fairfield team that beat Middletown in the regional final last season. The win also kept the Middies a game back in the GMC standings.

“We spent a lot of time preparing for Fairfield, not Moeller,” Andrews said. “If you’re going to come in here and beat these guys on their floor, you have to play good basketball. We didn’t do that. … But I think we’ll get there.”