PHILADELPHIA –  In women's Big 5 action on Sunday afternoon, the Villanova Wildcats traveled to Hawk Hill where they tallied an 81-65 win over the Saint Joseph's Hawks. Villanova improves to 5-3 on the season, while the Hawks fall to 5-2.

With the victory, Villanova wins its Big 5 pod with a 2-0 record and will play Temple for the Big 5 championship in the Big 5 Classic on Friday night at the Finneran Pavilion. Game time is set for 8 p.m.

Saint Joseph's started strong, racing to an early 11-4 lead. Mackenzie Smith led the early charge for the Hawks with seven of her team's 11 points.

Villanova responded by out scoring the Hawks by a 9-2 margin the rest of quarter to make it a 13-13 game after one period. Maddie Burke gave the Wildcats a spark off the bench with five points on a turn around jumper and a three from the wing.

The Hawks made three of their five shots, before going just 1-of-12 from the field the rest of the quarter.

With the score tied 17-17 midway through the second quarter, Villanova freshman point guard Jasmine Bascoe scored seven straight points on a triple and two pull-up jump shots to propel the Wildcats to a 24-20 advantage.

Following a jumper by Hawk forward Laura Ziegler that cut the Villanova lead to 29-26, Wildcat guard Bronagh Power-Cassidy ended the first half scoring when she drained a three from straight away to give Villanova a 32-26 halftime lead.

Saint Jospeh's shot just 24.2 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes, while the Wildcats were 14-of-29 for 48.3 percent. Bascoe led Villanova in the first half with 11 points, while Smith had nine points for the Hawks.

Villanova scored the first seven points of the third quarter to take control of the game with a 39-26 lead. The seven points included two lay-ups by Denae Carter and a three-point field goal by Maddie Webber. Following a three-ball by Ziegler that made it a 39-29 game, Villanova ran off six straight points on jump shots by Lara Edmanson, Power-Cassidy and Webber to take a commanding 45-29 lead.

The Wildcats would use the early spurt to take a 54-43 lead after three quarters of play.

Leading 64-54 at the 5:37 mark of the fourth quarter, Villanova put the game away with six unanswered points to grab a a 70-54 advantage with 4:04 on the clock. After Kaitlyn Orihel split a pair at the line, Jaliyah Green drained a three-ball and Carter scored on a short jumper in the paint to account for all six Wildcat points.

In the win, Bascoe led the way with a game-high 26 points to go with four rebounds, four assists and two steals. She was 10-of-16 from the field, 3-of-3 from three-point range and 3-of-4 from the foul line. Webber finished with 18 points, while Power-Cassidy had nine points. Carter added eight points and six rebounds.

Saint Joseph's was paced by Smith with 18 points and Brugler who had 16 points. Ziegler registered a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

For the game, Villanova was 30-of-59 from the field (50.8%), 9-of-17 from three-point range (52.9%) and 12-of-16 from the foul line (75.0%), while the Hawks shot 31.0 percent from the floor (18-of-58), 28.6 percent from long distance (4-of-14) and 92.6 percent from the charity stripe (25-of-27). The Hawks owned a 38-34 advantage on the backboards. Villanova was charged with just seven turnovers.

NOTES: Villanova has won nine of the last 10 versus Saint Joseph's…The Wildcats are 134-42 all-time in Big 5 play…Villanova is 45-8 in its last 53 Big 5 contests…Jasmine Bascoe has reached double figures in points in seven of the first eight games…The 30 made field goals today are a season-high for the Wildcats.