ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — It was clear that SLU has made some progress since their first meeting with Xavier and they still have a long way to go. It looked dicey at the start, SLU rallied and then fell apart at the end of the first half. With a few minutes to go in the first half, I was thinking if they could keep the margin to five points at the half, it could make for an interesting second half. And then when they ended up being down 10 at the half, well, you knew they were in trouble.

SLU shot 52.6 percent from the field in the first half, 39.1 in the second.

SLU never led. In two games against Xavier this season, SLU never led.

SLU’s leading rebounder was Barry Eberhardt with four.

SLU’s 33.3 percent at the line was a season low.

SLU’s PPP was .83. Yesterday against La Salle it was .79.

SLU’s 21 rebounds were a season low.

The answer to our season-long saga of Lisch vs. Scott Highmark ended with Highmark coming out on top. Lisch finished with 1,687 points, leaving him 16 points short of fifth place on the all-time SLU scoring list. Had Lisch not missed the UMSL game with a tailbone injury, he might have gotten it. That or his 0 for 10 against Temple.

Though there is something fitting about Lisch and Liddell finishing their careers next to each other on the scoring and assist lists.

Liddell was in single digits in scoring in his final five games.

One of the most interesting stats to me was that SLU’s freshmen had 0 assists and 10 turnovers. Lisch had three assists, Liddell had four and Eberhardt had two assists. Lisch and Liddell had zero turnovers.

Brian Conklin started the game but Barry Eberhardt started the second half. In crunch time in the past few games, Majerus seemed more comfortable with Eberhardt on the court.

Paul Eckerle hit a 3, his first field goal since the Richmond game on Feb. 8. Majerus said he wanted Eckerle back next season and hoped he would be back. They’ll still have a scholarship for him unless somebody famous announces he’s transferring to SLU. I would think he wold play less next season because they’ll have more guards: Mitchell, Cassity, Femi John, Christian Salecich, maybe another freshman. This year, he was the fifth guard in a three-guard lineup. Next year he’ll be the fifth guard in a two-guard lineup.

I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Mitchell has a broken bone in his hand — there are a lot of bones in there — but he had no tape on his hand on Thursday after having a good amount last Saturday. He had no assists for the first time this season,  against five turnovers. One thing about Mitchell: He’s not afraid to try to score. In the final three games, he took 46 shots.

No points, three rebounds,  two turnovers for Conklin in 14 minutes. He needs a break.

Majerus has said Kyle Cassity isn’t going to play baseball this year so he can concentrate on conditioning for next season. He started to look hesitant on the floor again at the end of the year.

Brett Thompson nailed a 3 and played pretty well, except of course for the missed dunk at the end of the first half that had Majerus pretty ticked. I said it after the last game too that Thompson and Xavier’s Kenny Frease are made for each other.

Willie Reed was 4 for 7. He seems to be right around there every game. Reed looked demoralized coming off the court and Lisch went over and put his arm around him as they went to the locker room.

The loss snapped a three-game win streak with Paul Steratore working the game.

Still not sure if we’ll be back in Atlantic City next year. It will be discussed at an AD’s meeting tomorrow. It’s probably going to be Atlantic City or Springfield, Mass., next year, and they might well settle for Atlantic City rather than going someplace different from one year. It’s probably a little easier to get a meal after the 9 p.m. game in Atlantic City than in Springfield.

SLU’s conference schedule next season will be the same as this year’s, only flopped. So road trips to UMass, GW, Richmond, Duquesne, Charlotte, St.Joe’s and Dayton, home games with Xavier,  Temple, Dayton, Fordham, Richmond, Rhode Island,Bonaventure and Duquesne. So most of the good teams will be coming to St. Louis. On the nonconference slate, Nebraska, Missouri State and SIUC will come to SLU, and there’s the tournament in Chicago. After that, the rest is wide open.

SLU probably won’t get in another Hawaii/Puerto Rico type tournament until the current freshmen are seniors.

I’ll have more as I clean out my notebook in the days ahead.