PHILADELPHIA-ATLANTA-ST. LOUIS — I’m working my way home from Philly as I write and compile this, so this will have a touch of Americana to it.

La Salle is the poor sister of Philadelphia basketball and, with Temple and St. Joe’s playing Saturday night, the Philadelphia papers didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to the game. After the game, the plan was to bring Rick Majerus to La Salle’s interview room, but since I was the only one there, they scrapped that plan and just had me go to the SLU room. (Quirk about La Salle: The locker rooms are in the basement, four flights down, so the visiting team gets a small room just off the court to go to at halftime and immediately after the game.) People point out that Majerus always seems to be ripping his players, but when he was told that I was the only one there, he was disappointed, because he was prepared to praise his team. “How come they’re always there when we lose?” he wondered. (Later, a guy from the La Salle campus radio station joined us.)

Majerus liked his team’s defense — even though La Salle’s points per possession was over 1 — and how they dealt with the adversity of foul trouble and La Salle throwing down some tough shots. “Lisch played a very smart game,” Majerus said, “and Tommie did a good job of coming back after I criticized him and he played much tougher. He has a tendency to float sometimes and he really responded. I think each guy gave us a nice lift in his own way. Barry with five rebounds and a key assist and he made three good baskets.”

SLU had 40 points in the paint — Husak had four, Eberhardt had six, Knollmeyer had two, so that’s 12. That leaves 28 points in the paint for the rest of the team. SLU had only eight fast-break points, so that leaves 20 points in the paint from a half-court set, which is a lot for the Billikens.

The plus-minus numbers:

Lisch +10

Brown +10

Meyer +5

Polk +5

Husak +3

Liddell +2

Relphorde +1

Knollmeyer 0

Eckerle 0

Eberhardt -1

SLU’s 81 points were their most since the Furman game. The 38 points at the half were the most since 41 against Houston Baptist.

When SLU went up 12-8 in the first half, it was the largest lead for SLU on the road this season.

SLU shot 63 percent. The previous high was 57.9 against Houston Baptist.

SLU’s 24 fouls were its most in a regulation game.

Tommie Liddell’s rebounding totals have gone up in the past two weeks: 5 against Dayton, 6 against Rhode Island, nine against Temple, 7 against La Salle. He hasn’t had a double-double this season, but he’s starting to get real close. Tommie played the whole second half.

Kevin’s 17 shots were his most this season. So were his 10 made baskets. And he did it in 33 minutes, a comparatively low number for him.

In two of the past four games, Luke Meyer has made 8 of 11 shots, which is pretty good. He keeps flirting with the 20-point mark. He might have done it Saturday if not for foul trouble that limited him to 26 minutes.

Dwayne Polk had five points, his first points of 2008. He had gone scoreless in the past four games.

Husak had five fouls in nine minutes — including an illegal screen call that left me baffled; he looked to me to be standing still with his hands next to his body — the second time he’s fouled out this year.

Danny Brown played almost the entire second half. His 29 minutes were a season-high. In the past three games, Brown has made 10 of 15 shots and 3 of 4 3-pointers.

SLU’s 73.9 percent shooting in the second half was their best 20 minutes of the season.

Up next is Dayton, which has lost three in a row, and may still be reeling when the Billikens hit town on Wednesday. SLU and Dayton are tied at 2-3, along with Fordham and La Salle. (And possibly UMass after Sunday’s game with Xavier.)

Not to be looking on the dark side, but SLU’s win over La Salle gives them the tiebreaker over the Explorers come conference tournament time.