The App State women’s basketball team lost 61-77 against the James Madison Dukes Thursday. 

The Dukes jumped out to an early 5-0 lead. Junior guard Emily Hege put the Mountaineers on the board with a mid-range jump shot. 

Senior guard Zada Porter found senior guard Mara Neria for a layup making the score 4-9. Neria followed her layup with a three, giving her 5 points in the opening quarter. 

The Black and Gold trailed 7-15 at the end of the first quarter. 

Porter opened the second quarter with a layup and a free throw to shrink the deficit to 10. 

Senior guard Emily Carver followed with a three. 

Neria made her second three of the game with a little over three minutes left in the second quarter. The Mountaineers were outscored 15-21 in the second quarter. 

James Madison led 22-36 heading into the halftime break. 

Hege scored first for the Mountaineers with back-to-back threes. Hege topped it off with a free throw, scoring the first 7 points for the Black in Gold in the third quarter. 

App State scored 20 points in the third quarter, but still trailed 42-55 heading into the fourth quarter. 

Hege opened the scoring once more with a three. The Mountaineers scored 11 points in the final 1:25 of the game. However, the Black and Gold went on to lose 61-77. 

Neira recorded a team high 18 points and 4 three-pointers. Senior guard Eleyana Tafisi finished with 7 assists. 

The Mountaineers shot 38% from the field and 27% from behind the arc. 

App State fell to 13-11 on the season and 9-4 in conference play. 

The Mountaineers will travel to Atlanta to face off against Georgia State. Tip-off is slated for 5 p.m. Saturday. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.