Denison's second-half rally fell short as Baldwin-Wallace edged the Big Red 54-53 in the opening round of the Manchester College Bankers' Classic on Friday evening. The loss snapped Denison's 29-game regular season winning streak that dated back to Feb. 13, 2010.

DU led the majority of the opening period en route to taking a 29-25 lead into the intermission.  The Yellow Jackets opened the second half with seven unanswered points as they regained a three-point edge just over two minutes into the frame.

Sophomore Jane Windler put the Big Red back on top at 35-34 with a layup at the 15:48 mark.  B-W rattled off seven straight points to take a six point advantage with 9:33 remaining in regulation.  Down 44-38, junior point guard Serafina Nuzzo knocked down a jumper and three-pointer in back-to-back possessions to trim the deficit to one.

After the Yellow Jackets built their largest lead of the night at 50-43, Denison made their final push of the night with less than six minutes on the clock.  Following a Windler free throw, Nuzzo converted an old-fashioned three-point play to shrink the margin to three with 3:16 to go.

Catherine Spisak extended the B-W lead back to five with a layup, but Windler knocked down two more foul shots to close the gap to 52-49.  On the ensuing possession, the suffocating Big Red defense forced Nancy Coulter to throw a pass right to Nuzzo.  The Yellow Jacket miscue resulted in a jumper by first-year Alyx Ingram.

Coulter answered the Denison score with a layup at the 2:11 mark.  With under a minute remaining, DU forced yet another turnover with 48 ticks on the clock.  Nuzzo converted the errant pass into points and trimmed the deficit to 54-53.

Coming out of a 30 second timeout, Rachel Rossman's bounce pass in the lane was intercepted by senior Annie-Rae Dura.  After dribbling the ball across the timeline, Denison called a full timeout to set up the final play of the game with nine seconds on the clock.

Nuzzo took the inbounds pass and drove down the right side of the lane.  After pulling up short, the junior point guard found Nicole Coggins cutting down the baseline.  A strong defensive effort by the Yellow Jackets forced Coggins to attempt a reverse layup that rimmed out with two seconds remaining.  Rossman grabbed the rebound to secure the Baldwin-Wallace win.

The Big Red shot 38 percent (20-for-53) from the field and a perfect 11-for-11 from the free throw line, while the Yellow Jackets converted 34 percent (17-of-50) from the floor.  Baldwin-Wallace held a slim 36-32 edge on the boards.

Windler paced the Denison offense with a game-high tying 18 points on 5-of-8 from the floor and a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe.  The sophomore post also had a team-high tying six rebounds, three assists and three steals in 31 minutes of action.  Nuzzo logged 14 points, three assist and three steals, while Coggins finished with 11 points and two steals.

The Yellow Jackets were paced by Jessica Lairson's 18 points, while Jessica Carpenter and Natalia Simovic each recorded eight tallies.  Simovic and Spisak paced B-W on the glass with eight and seven rebounds, respectively.

Denison falls to 1-1 on the year, while Baldwin-Wallace improves to 2-0.  DU returns to the court on Saturday at 1 p.m. when they take on St. Mary's in the consolation game of the Manchester College Bankers' Classic.  The Belles dropped a 66-54 decision to host Manchester on Friday night.