PHILADELPHIA • Those on the St. Louis University basketball team have talked a lot this season about the squad's depth and the insurance that provides the club. If one player is off, there's another there to step in.

That was proved on Saturday, when Cory Remekun, the least likely member of SLU's nine-man rotation to move to the fore, came through with a standout performance in a seesaw 59-51 victory for the Billikens over La Salle at Tom Gola Arena.

It was the 20th win of the season for SLU, just the third time the Billikens have done that in the last 14 seasons, their fourth win in a row and they're 8-3 in Atlantic 10 play with two home games coming up.

At 20-5, SLU has reached 20 wins sooner than all but four teams in school history.

While the numbers that stood out in the win were Dwayne Evans' 16 points and 13 rebounds, including a rebound and basket with 38 seconds left that effectively wrapped up the game, the play that stood out was that of Remekun. The 6-foot-8 junior forward from Texas generally logs a few minutes a game and in some recent contests hasn't even hit the court in the second half.

Remekun had five points, three rebounds, two assists and a steal, which doesn't sound like a lot, but he played a big role on both ends of the court as his athleticism helped SLU slow a La Salle team that used four or five guards at a time.

"There are no stats that anyone will look at to tell you what a great game Cory played," SLU coach Rick Majerus said. "His defensive effort was his best of the year. It was stellar."

Evans also was impressed.

"He's going to be a big key piece for us down the stretch," Evans said. "And if he keeps playing like that, we could go a (long) ways. Consistency is a big thing with Cory. He has a lot of ability that sometimes people don't see, whether it be an off game or foul trouble or not playing to the best of his ability. I think he can play like that every game, and I expect him to."

Early in the conference season, Remekun was struggling, such as in the Dayton game in which he got three fouls in three minutes. But in the last five games, he has kept his fouls down and his playing time up. He has done well in games such as Saturday's, against teams that rely on athleticism.

Remekun agreed that it was probably his best game this season.

"I just tried to come out and play hard, do my job," said Remekun, who got a round of applause from his teammates in the locker room in the basement of Tom Gola Arena. "I feel like I've been trying to focus on doing my job, helping the team and not worrying about what other people are saying. Basically I'm just focusing on myself and what the team wants from me. Defense, rebounding and finishing, those are the main things."

SLU needed everything it could to win to pull out its fourth win in its last five road games. The contest was tight throughout, with six ties and nine lead changes. SLU never led by more than eight points.

SLU's offense did not shine — the Billikens shot 36.1 percent from the field, their poorest in a win this season. But their defense did, holding La Salle (17-9, 6-5) to 40 percent shooting and playing a hand in the Explorers' 20 turnovers, which SLU turned into 20 points.

"If you like grittiness and toughness and like resiliency and fortitude, that was a great game," Majerus said. "If pretty basketball means more to you, then it wasn't so good. I like toughness. This was a tribute to these kids' toughness. They hung in there."

The game was tied 47-47 with 5:08 to play when, out of a SLU timeout, Mike McCall hit a 3-pointer off the dribble to put SLU ahead. On the next four possessions, La Salle turned the ball over three times and a missed a 3-point shot. SLU didn't do a whole lot itself, getting two free throws by Brian Conklin at the 4:06 mark and then no scoring until the final minute.

But those next points were big.

With SLU ahead 52-49, Kwamain Mitchell went to the basket and missed, but Evans got the rebound, put the ball back up and scored to give SLU a five-point lead with 38 seconds to play.

"Their guards didn't do a good job of boxing out," said Evans, who had six offensive rebounds. "I just took advantage of the height difference and the weight difference."

La Salle turned the ball over on its next possession and SLU had recorded a milestone win.

"This was a big trip for us," Remekun said. "It boosted our morale. That was our plan the whole time to come out and prove to everybody that we're for real."