Facing Liberty in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Thursday afternoon, the Saint Joseph's Hawks did exactly what a No. 1 seed is supposed to do to a No. 16.

The Hawks bolted out to a 9-1 lead -- with all of those points scored by Jameer Nelson -- and never looked back, securing a comfortable 82-63 win at HSBC Arena. SJU will face No. 8 Texas Tech, a 76-73 winner over Charlotte, on Saturday in the second round of the East Rutherford Region.

More impressive than the margin of victory was how Saint Joseph's (28-1) achieved it. Resembling the manic defenders and opportune, selfless scorers they were during the regular season, the Hawks completely purged last week's loss to Xavier from their system.

"We wanted to turn up our defense a little more," said senior guard Jameer Nelson. "The last couple of games, our defense hadn't been how we played defensively earlier. And we wanted to try to get the ball up a little faster on offense."

Indeed, Saint Joseph's looked sharp at both ends of the floor. Defensively, the Hawks effectively pressured the ball on the perimeter and helped out down low, and offensively, they feasted in transition, forcing 26 Liberty turnovers off of which they scored 27 points.

"The beginning of the game was the biggest concern for us because of the layoff and because of the idea of are you still good enough after coming off a loss," SJU head coach Phil Martelli said. "It was good to see our speed was back defensively."

Leading the offensive attack was Nelson, who scored 33 points on 11-of-17 and became the program's first 2,000-point scorer when he drained a 3-pointer early in the first half. He earned a standing ovation from the arena crowd after checking out for good, with 8:03 left in the game.

"I came out there and hit a couple of shots and my teammates found me," said Nelson, typically deflecting praise. "It wasn't about me saying I'm a star player and I'm going to take over."

Martelli said that Nelson bumped into him in the locker room before the game, while the rest of the Hawks were stretching on the arena floor.

"I said to him, 'Today, this is what great players live for,'" Martelli recalled. "Great players lead in this situation. He has an innate ability to understand what leading means. That's why he's the best player in the country, because he can impact the game by understanding what needs to be done."

The Hawks ended any hopes of an upset early, taking control with a 16-2 run that swelled their lead to 17 about midway through the first half. SJU shot a crisp 51.7 percent in the first half, including 7-of-12 from beyond the arc. The only other double-figure scorer for Saint Joseph's was Delonte West, who netted 18 points and grabbed 9 rebounds.

David Dees led the Flames with 22 points off the bench, while Brian Woodson added 10.

"We played a team today that has one tremendous player and a bunch of very, very good players, that's well coached, disciplined," said Liberty head coach Randy Dunton. "Hats off to them. Obviously they didn't go 27-0 because they don't have the substance of a very, very good basketball team. We found out today just how good Jameer Nelson is."

In the second half, with the outcome all but certain, Saint Joseph's became uncharacteristically sloppy, turning the ball over and missing easy shots.

"The second half was indicative of the layoff," Martelli said. "We already discussed with them the turnovers and the missed lay-ups, which will be fatal to advancing Saturday. I can't tell you any one thing we have to do, but we have to play better than we did today."

Martelli dismissed any notion that the Hawks were looking to make a statement to those who disagreed with the team's top seeding.

"They were really disappointed in how we played last Thursday," he said. "They were able to zero in on that feeling. It's not completely gone, because I don't think we were very good in the second half. We'll remind them of that tonight in our meting and then get on with practice tomorrow."

Tentative tip time for Saturday's game is 5:30 p.m.