The 12th-ranked Denison women's basketball opened the 2011-12 season with a 69-61 victory at Bethany College on Tuesday evening.

The Big Red utilized their early advantage in the paint, scoring their first 16 points down low.  DU opened with a 12-2 run and eventually built a 20-8 advantage midway through the first period.  Junior point guard Serafina Nuzzo scored eight points during the run, while senior post Christina Myers contributed four points off the bench.

Trailing 24-13, the Bison rallied to trim the margin to five behind three-pointers from Renee Shepherd and Taylor Verrico.  Denison held an 8-4 scoring edge over the final 2:44 to enter the half with a 37-27 lead.  The Big Red scored 22 of their 37 first-half points in the paint.

DU maintained a double-digit lead for the majority of the second half.  At 14:26, junior Nicole Coggins drilled her second bucket of the game to put the Big Red up by 19, their largest lead of the night.

Bethany slowly chipped away at the deficit and, with 2:05 left in regulation, they shrunk the margin to 64-56.  Over the final 49 seconds, senior Jessica Grzybowski and sophomore Gretchen Staubach combined to go three of four from the charity stripe to ice the victory.

Denison outscored the Bison 38-30 in the paint and got 29 points from their bench, compared to just 18 from the Bethany reserves.  DU hit 55 percent (29-of-53) from the field, while Bethany converted 45 percent (24-of-53) from the floor.

Nuzzo scored a game-high 17 points behind 8-of-10 from the field.  The junior also had three rebounds and three steals.  Myers provided the spark off the bench with 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting.  Junior Kyli Parker and rookie Alyx Ingram chipped in eight points each.  Parker also had four boards and four steals, while Ingram pulled down three rebounds and had three steals.  Staubach grabbed a team-best five rebounds to go along with five points and two assists.

The Bison were led by Audra Droginske's 15 points, and Kayla Taormina's 14 tallies.  Shepherd had a game-high eight rebounds, while Anne Wilson logged six assists and three steals.

Denison moves to 1-0 on the year, while Bethany falls to 0-1.  The Big Red returns to action on Friday at the Manchester College Tournament.  DU opens tournament play at 6 p.m. against Baldwin-Wallace College.