HARRISONBURG, Va. – Ohio could not overcome a sluggish first half, dropping its basketball season opener 88-78 to James Madison on Monday night at Atlantic Union Bank Center.

The Bobcats trailed by 20 late in the first half and were down 41-26 at the break. They got as close as six in the second half, but their comeback efforts came up short.

Aidan Hadaway led a balanced scoring effort by Ohio with 17 points, but they could not match Xavier Brown’s career-high 23 points for the Dukes. The Bobcats also were crushed by a 41-26 rebounding deficit.

Despite the bad first half, Ohio actually got out to an 8-4 lead that included a pair of steals and layups for Shareef Mitchell, but James Madison dominated for a long stretch after that. It scored the next 13 points as the start of a larger 35-11 run that put it in front 39-19 with 1:37 left before halftime.

The Bobcats shot just 35.5% in the first half but rebounded to shoot 67.9% after the break, though it still was not enough.

In less than two minutes of second-half play, Ohio had its deficit cut to seven at 43-36 on a Hadaway layup, but Mark Freeman answered with a big 3-pointer to make it a double-digit game again.

Vic Searls scored a layup with 12:24 remaining that got the Bobcats even closer at 54-48, but that was answered with an Eli Hutchins-Everette layup and Freeman 3-pointer to give James Madison some space again.

The Dukes later went on a 14-3 run that put their advantage all the way back up to 19, and they still led by that margin at 75-56 with 5:25 remaining. That’s when the Bobcats made a last-ditch effort to get back in it, getting as close as 81-74 on a pair of Clayton free throws with 1:35 left. It was not enough.

Iowa State transfer Jackson Paveletzke, who played at Wofford before that, scored 16 points in his first game with the Bobcats, while Mitchell and AJ Brown had 14 points each. Mitchell had four steals and three assists.

It was a rough offensive game for AJ Clayton, who went just 1-for-6 and scored eight points, but he did contribute a team-leading five rebounds and four assists. Elmore James went just 1-of-7 from the field and scored three points while also fouling four times in 21 minutes.

Freeman backed Xavier Brown for the Dukes with 16 points and four assists, while Hutchins-Everett had 13 points and eight boards. AJ Smith also reached double figures with 11 points.

The game was part of the Mid-American Conference-Sun Belt Challenge and featured one of the preseason favorites from each league.

Ohio has its home opener at 7 p.m. Saturday when it faces UNC Asheville at The Convo.