BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Jameer Nelson followed his coach's instructions to perfection.
Nelson scored 22 of his season-high 33 points in the first half, leading top-seeded Saint Joseph's to an 82-63 victory over Liberty on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
"I said to him, 'Today, this is what great players live for. Great players lead in this situation,'" Hawks coach Phil Martelli said. "And he has an innate ability to understand what leading means. ... That's why he's the best player in the country."
And because of it, the Hawks (28-1) advanced to play eighth-seeded Texas Tech on Saturday in the East Rutherford Regional.
Saint Joseph's win ended what had been a tough stretch.
First, the Hawks' bid for a perfect season came to an end with an 87-67 loss to Xavier in the Atlantic 10 quarterfinals on March 11. And then came Sunday, when Martelli created a stir on national television, angrily responding to CBS analyst Billy Packer, who argued that the Hawks weren't worthy of a No. 1 seed.
Nelson waited until Thursday to provide an even more compelling response.
"The loss is over with," Nelson said. "I went out there and hit a couple of shots and my teammates found me. It wasn't about me saying, 'I'm a star player and I'm going to take over.'"
Oh, but he did.
The senior point guard put up the team's first nine points by hitting his first three attempts, including a 3-pointer, and two free throws in building a 9-1 lead three minutes in. And he remained almost as hot through the first 10 minutes, going 6-for-8 for 16 points by sinking a variety of shots -- two 3-pointers, a strong 16-foot jumper off a pump fake, and a layup to cap a transition break.
How dominant was Nelson?
He was outscoring the Flames 18-16 before Liberty's Ryan Mantlo hit two free throws to cut Saint Joseph's lead to 38-18 with 4:13 left in the first half.
"We found out how good Jameer Nelson is," Flames coach Randy Dunton said. "We'll be able to go home to Lynchburg and tell everyone how good he is."
Delonte West added 18 points and nine rebounds for Saint Joseph's. David Dees led the Flames (18-15) with 22 points.
The Hawks advanced to the second round for the 10th time in school history and first since 2001. It also was their largest margin of victory in 37 NCAA Tournament games, topping a 65-48 victory over Providence in a 1966 first-round game.
Nelson, already the program's leading scorer, surpassed the 2,000-point plateau, giving him 2,029 career points. And he even managed a smile when he opened the second half by missing what should have been an easy layup.
Coach Martelli still found something to criticize, lamenting the Hawks' tired-looking second-half performance in which Liberty outscored them 37-36. He did note that his team might have been rusty, playing only its third game in 16 days.
As for Packer's comments having an influence on his players, Martelli said: "They don't even know who he is because his time has passed. These kids are impacted by a different group of people in the media."
The Flames looked lost and out of their element, missing 12 of their first 17 attempts and were 9-of-25 from the field in trailing 46-26 at the half.
Liberty, which won the Big South Conference title with an 89-44 win over High Point on March 6, was making only its second tournament appearance. The Flames also were the 16th seed in 1994 when they led North Carolina 40-36 with 15 minutes left before losing 71-51.
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