VILLANOVA, PA. – In BIG EAST women's basketball action on Saturday afternoon at the Finneran Pavilion, the Creighton Bluejays used a fourth quarter surge to earn a 70-57 win over the Villanova Wildcats. With the loss, Villanova falls to 13-11 overall and 7-5 in conference action, while Creighton improves to 20-4 on the season and 12-1 in league play.

Creighton led 8-7 with 4:15 to play in the opening quarter, when the Bluejays finished the period on an 11-4 run to lead 19-11 after one quarter of play. Creighton guard Molly Mogensen highlighted the spurt with a three-point field goal and two free throws.

The Bluejays played strong first quarter defense, holding the Wildcats to just 4-of-13 shooting from the field. Creighton was 7-of-13 from the floor in the game's first 10 minutes.

Morgan Maly connected on a turnaround jumper to give Creighton a 26-18 lead early in the first quarter, before the Wildcats ran off five consecutive points on three free throws by Maddie Burke and a driving lay-up by freshman guard Jasmine Bascoe to make it a 26-24 contest.

Leading 28-27 with 3:49 to play in the second quarter, Creighton scored eight of the final 12 points of the first half to lead 36-31 at intermission. Maly led the Bluejays in the first half with 12 points, while Mogensen had 10 points. Bascoe paced the Wildcats with 11 points in the opening half.

After a Denae Carter lay-up cut the Creighton advantage to 56-54 with 5:27 to play, the Bluejays used a decisive 7-0 run to open-up a 63-54 lead at the 3:57 mark. Mogensen started the run with two free throws followed by a big three-ball from Kennedy Townsend and a 15-foot jumper by Maly.

Creighton played outstanding defense down the stretch holding Villanova to just four points over the last 5:43.

In the loss, Bascoe scored 21 points to go with seven rebounds, four assists and two steals. Carter reached double figures with 13 points and eight rebounds.

Creighton was paced by Lauren Jensen who scored a game-high 25 points and Maly who had a double-double with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Mogensen was the third Bluejay in double figures with 12 points.

For the game, Villanova was 23-of-56 from the field (41.1%), 4-of-17 from three-point range (23.5%) and 7-of-8 from the foul line (87.5%), while Creighton shot 43.3 percent from the floor (26-of-60), 38.1 percent from long distance (8-of-21) and 90.9 percent from the charity stripe (10-of-11). Creighton owned a 35-31 advantage on the backboards.

Villanova returns to action on Wednesday night with a road game at DePaul. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m., eastern time.