A strong second half and a dominant performance by Creighton’s big three gives Creighton its first Big East win in school history as the women’s basketball team knocked off the Villanova Wildcats 65-58.

The Bluejays hosted the Wildcats on Saturday afternoon for their Big East opener, and made history with the win.

“It’s kind of cool,” sophomore guard Marissa Janning said. “I wasn’t trying to think of that during the game but after we got done and we won, I was like ‘Yeah! We got the first win in the history of the Big East for us.'”

The story of the game was the performance put forth by Janning, senior forward Sarah Nelson and senior guard McKenzie Fujan. The trio combined for 51 points on 20-32 shooting with 14 rebounds and 11 assists.

“When us three are playing together it’s kind of like the defense has to guess,” Janning said. “They have to take one, maybe two away but you can’t cover three. Especially as versatile as Sarah is and as athletic as Kenze is and maybe with my speed, there’s no way that they can defend us … There are so many options with us three and then when you have two good shooters … out there to also defend, there’s no way. When we’re clicking on all cylinders … it’s really nice, and I hope it keeps moving forward like that and stays consistent.”

The Jays got off to a great start, forcing three early turnovers against a team that only averaged 9.2 per game coming in and jumping out to a 12-4 lead.

However, back-to-back corner 3-pointers by the Wildcats got them right back into the game. The two teams went back and forth for the rest of the half, but Creighton struggled to convert both from the field and from the free-throw line. Creighton held a 26-25 lead late in the half, but Villanova scored the final four points to take a 29-26 lead into the break.

Creighton shot just 37.5 percent from the field and 4-9 from the line in the first half, compared to the 52.2 percent the Wildcats shot.

The second half mirrored in the first in that Creighton made a big push again in the opening moments. They scored the first 11 points of the half including five by Janning, who finished with game-highs in points and rebounds with 19 and seven respectively, but also had five turnovers.

“I liked [Janning’s] mindset today,” head coach Jim Flanery said. “At the end she has to be better at taking care of the ball but I felt like she was bouncing around and really aggressive today, and especially at the beginnings of both halves.”

Villanova pushed back, cutting the lead to just four at 39-35 with 12:40 remaining, but the Jays were able to weather the storm and stretched the lead to as many as 13 points.

During that stretch, Fujan had six straight points and eight of Creighton’s 11 at one point. She finished with 17 points – 14 of which came in the second half – on an efficient 7-9 shooting.

“I just know my team kind of needs me to do that,” Fujan said. “Each of us kind of have a role and I think that’s part of mine, is to get a little hype in the feel of the game and that kind of stuff.”

Down double-digits with under five minutes remaining, Villanova began pressuring Creighton in the backcourt, and the Jays struggled to get the ball up. The Jays turned the ball over four times against the press and allowed the Wildcats to claw back within two points with 1:18 left on the clock.

However, Fujan stepped up yet again, banking in a desperation 3-pointer at the end of the shot-clock to put Creighton back up five at 61-56.

Freshman guard Lauren Works did her part to secure the win as well, going 4-4 from the free-throw line in the final 20 seconds as Villanova fouled to stop the clock. Works finished with seven points and two rebounds in 14 minutes off the bench.

“You’ve got to be proud of the way [Works] stepped up and made those free throws at the end … Somehow she figures out a way to win games and impact games,” Flanery said. “She’s got a chance to help us even more as a freshman as the season goes on.”

The final margin read 65-58, but the Jays nearly gave the game away with the late turnovers. Flanery took the blame for Creighton’s lack or preparedness to break the press late.

“Obviously late game execution was a problem and a lot of that’s probably my fault,” Flanery said. “I think when you have experience and you have good ball-handlers, you kind of take a press break for granted … We’ve got some work to do there.”

It is a big win for the Jays to open the conference schedule with. Villanova came to Omaha with a 9-1 record and a RPI of 33, both good for tops in the Big East.

“It’s a good win,” Flanery said. “Villanova is a good team. They don’t beat themselves, they’re hard to guard.”

Creighton will travel to the nation’s capital on Wednesday to take on Georgetown. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m. Creighton’s next home game is on Jan. 4 at 4:05 p.m. against Big East preseason favorite DePaul.