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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — David Godbold was on the court Friday night to anchor Oklahoma's defense.

And he saved the day with his offense.

Godbold had five 3-pointers and a career-high 25 points as the sixth-seeded Sooners defeated No. 11 seed St. Joseph's 72-64 Friday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament East Regional at BJCC Arena.

More importantly, Godbold's defense didn't fall off with his offensive explosion.

The 6-foot-5 senior from Oklahoma City spent most of the night guarding the Hawks' leading scorer, 6-foot-10 swingman Pat Calathes. Calathes came in averaging nearly 18 points per game and finished with six, all in the second half.

"David was terrific,” OU coach Jeff Capel said. "He followed the scouting report. He got up in (Calathes), made him put it on the floor.

"We didn't want Calathes to get comfortable, and I don't think he was able to.”

Godbold had made only two starts in the Sooners' previous 10 games and had scored five or fewer points in eight of those games.

But he learned after Monday's practice that he'd be returning to the starting lineup as Capel hoped to rely on his experience and defense.

"We really have no one who has any experience in this tournament besides David,” Capel said. "Austin Johnson, Taylor Griffin and Longar Longar were on teams that were in this tournament, but they didn't really play. We wanted to switch it up and have some NCAA Tournament experience in our starting lineup.”

Offensively, Godbold caught fire coming out of the halftime locker room. He hit three 3-pointers and had 11 points in the first three minutes of the second half as OU opened up a 19-point lead.

St. Joe's charged back quickly, cutting the deficit to 63-59 with 4:17 to play.

"We knew they were gonna make a run, we just didn't know when it was gonna happen,” OU junior Austin Johnson said. "We kept our composure. In the huddle, coach told us, ‘We're fine, we're OK. Just keep your heads, keep fighting.' And that's what we did.”

And when it got close, the Sooners' star freshman took over.

Blake Griffin finished with a rather quiet 12 points and four rebounds, but he almost single-handedly closed the door on the Hawks in the final four minutes.

After St. Joe's got within four points, Griffin had an assist to Longar Longar, then scored back-to-back buckets for a 69-61 lead.

And on a couple of occasions in the second half, Griffin found himself in man-to-man coverage — a rare sight this season for the Sooners' 6-foot-10, 243-pound rookie.

"That was fun,” Griffin said. "I waited for a second to see if anybody was gonna come and they didn't so I just turned and went to the goal. To be able to play like that, that's what I hope for every game.”

The win provided the Sooners with some satisfaction after listening all week to national analysts predict the St. Joe's upset.

"It's definitely a great thing,” Griffin said. "No one wants to go home in this tournament. To move on when a lot of people were saying we weren't supposed to win and St. Joe's was gonna upset us — it kind of gave us some fire. And to win it, it feels even better.”