James Madison’s season died Saturday underneath the sun-drenched Texas sky as its 21-point halftime lead evaporated and its national championship-game hopes melted away.

The Dukes are not going back to Frisco for the fourth time in five seasons.

“That’s going to be a hard one to live with,” second-year JMU coach Curt Cignetti said.

Instead, the spring campaign is over.

It ended with a 38-35 loss to Sam Houston in the semifinals of the FCS postseason at Bowers Stadium in Huntsville, Texas. The second-seeded Bearkats erased the No. 3-seed Dukes’ three-touchdown edge when they scored five times, spanning midway through the third quarter into the early part of the final stanza.

“Disappointment,” JMU senior defensive end Mike Greene said of what him and his teammates felt afterward. “… Played a really good first half, but ended up not being able to finish the game. I will say we fought hard. It was a tough loss.”

Bearkats coach K.C. Keeler said: “I mean it sounds crazy, but I never thought we were going to lose this game.”

Sam Houston speedster Jequez Ezzard played into the demise of what should’ve been a final 30 minutes of jubilation and celebration for JMU players and coaches like they have experienced in so many pivotal postseason games before. There was the 65-7 win over the very same Bearkats in the 2016 quarterfinals and the 2017 semifinal throttling of South Dakota State as well as last season’s blowout of Weber State in the semifinals.

But the familiar party of the Dukes donning Cowboy hats and smiles above their jerseys and shoulder pads never got started in the very same state where they hoped to return next week.

Ezzard turned a catch on a slant from quarterback Eric Schmid into a 69-yard touchdown reception. He dashed back and forth en route to the orange-filled end zone, twisting Dukes safety Wayne Davis around in the process.

The 5-foot-9 transfer from Howard struck again on special teams exactly one minute and 40 seconds later when he dispatched one trying, diving tackler at a time before sprinting past the rest of JMU’s punt team for an 80-yard scoring return. The punt-return touchdown narrowed the Dukes’ advantage to 27-24.

They had led 24-3 at the break.

“Coach [Keeler] talked about it at halftime,” Ezzard said. “We were down. He said we’ve got to persevere and somebody has to go out there and make a play. And it just happened.”

Another miscue on special teams gave the ball right back to the Bearkats after Ezzard’s second touchdown. Dukes kick returner Solomon Vanhorse couldn’t field a kickoff cleanly and Sam Houston recovered the ball.

Schmid took advantage and followed with a 20-yard touchdown run to close the third quarter and give his team the lead for the first time since holding a 3-0 edge in the first quarter.

Schmid, the Southland Conference Player of the Year who ran for 47 of his 55 rushing yards in the second half against a tiring defense, scored again on an 11-yard run to extend the Bearkats’ advantage to 38-27 in the fourth quarter.

“They had guys in space running real fast,” Cignetti said. “And we had guys in space that looked really gassed.”

Said Greene: “It was momentum. They had a couple of big plays with the slant to [Ezzard] and the punt return with [Ezzard] and they had a lot of momentum after that in the second half.”

Cignetti said the unraveling began when Dukes defensive end Antonio Colclough was called for a roughing-the-passer penalty on a third down in third quarter, which allowed Sam Houston to stay on the field. Three plays later, the Bearkats scored their first touchdown of the afternoon when running back Ramon Jefferson scored on a 7-yard run.

Up until then, JMU was dominating and cruising.

Dukes quarterback Cole Johnson rushed for a touchdown and threw for two more in the second quarter while helping build their wide lead. JMU’s defense held Sam Houston to 108 total yards and only 31 on the ground in the opening half. Linebacker Kelvin Azanama and cornerback Greg Ross each recorded interceptions.

“We were flying around and making plays,” Greene said.

But they couldn’t maintain their success, and they couldn’t finish a rally of their own. Johnson’s 34-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Scott Bracey brought the Dukes within a field goal of Sam Houston with about 10 minutes left to play.

They tried a 51-yard field goal from Connor Madden to tie it, but the attempt was way off. Cignetti said the kick was out of range for Ethan Ratke, the Colonial Athletic Association’s all-time leader in field goals who didn’t miss one all spring.

“I was really confident coming into this game that we’d be playing next week,” Cignetti said. “And certainly, was at halftime. So, I didn’t give much thought to Plan B and what it would be like not to be playing next week.”

BOX SCORE

James Madison 0 24 3 8—35

Sam Houston 3 0 28 7—38

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

SHSU—Morgan 29 field goal, 9:14

Second Quarter

JMU—Ratke 26 field goal, 10:26

JMU—Johnson 1 run (Ratke kick), 6:09

JMU—Wells Jr. 4 pass from Johnson (Ratke kick), 1:26

JMU—Cheatham 7 pass from Johnson (Ratke kick), 0:10

Third Quarter

SHSU—Jefferson 7 run (Morgan kick), 8:14

JMU—Ratke 48 field goal, 3:00

SHSU—Ezzard 69 pass from Schmid (Morgan kick), 2:22

SHSU—Ezzard 80 punt return (Morgan kick), 0:42

SHSU—Schmid 20 run (Morgan kick), 0:00

Fourth Quarter

SHSU—Schmid 11 run (Morgan kick), 12:16

JMU—Bracey 34 pass from Johnson (Johnson run), 10:14

Individual Stats

RUSHING—JMU: Agyei-Obese 24-98, Hamilton 12-61, Johnson 10-5, Palmer 2-4, Thornton 1(-2), 1-(-7). SHSU: Jefferson 15-60, Schmid 11-55, Smith 2-5, Adeyi 1-0, Jackson 1-(-1).

PASSING—JMU: Johnson 16-26-1-271, Moloney 0-1-0-0. SHSU: Schmid 13-27-2-218.

RECEIVING—JMU: Wells 7-89, Turner 2-45, Sims 2-43, Cheatham 2-40, Bracey 1-34, Douglas 1-11, Thornton 1-9. SHSU: Chrest 5-47, Ezzard 4-107, Adeyi 3-57, Harvin 1-7.