A Little Pain Can’t Derail This Train : College basketball: La Salle’s Simmons wouldn’t miss game against old buddies Kimble and Gathers.

Imagine yourself in a dentist’s chair, the right side of your jaw throbbing.

You spend part of your afternoon having abscessed gums drained. You leave the dentist’s office, and the right side of your face looks like you just went 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.

How do you spend your evening?

If you’re All-American forward Lionel (L-Train) Simmons, you put on your La Salle jersey No. 22, start your 107th consecutive varsity game and turn into Superman: You hit seven of 10 shots, including all four three-pointers; grab 14 rebounds against two 7-footers; play your usual 40 minutes, and hit the game-winning free throws in a 63-62 victory over cross-town rival Temple.

La Salle Coach Bill (Speedy) Morris said after the game Wednesday: “He couldn’t eat the team meal. I didn’t want him to play--I didn’t want him to do anything to hurt his future. He wanted to play. It didn’t affect him. He figured his mouth didn’t feel any worse leaving the dentist than it did going in.”

Morris quipped: “In a few months, he’ll be able to afford a root canal.”

Simmons, a home-grown senior who takes local rivalries seriously, said: “This was my last chance to beat Temple. In that type of game, (the mouth) didn’t really bother me. The only time it hurt was when the cheerleaders ran on the floor (to greet him afterward). I knew I was going to play. I just didn’t know how well. The games we’ve got coming up, there’s no room to sit out.”

Simmons had further dental work Friday but will be in uniform tonight when the No. 17-ranked Explorers (8-0) play host to No. 25 Loyola Marymount, starring his old Philly friends and foes, Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble, whose Dobbins Tech team beat Simmons’ Southern High School for the Philadelphia Public League championship five years ago.

That Dobbins team also included guard Doug Overton, now a junior at La Salle and the Explorers’ second-leading scorer behind Simmons. The four spent the summer telling each other what to expect tonight.

“We hung out together in the summer; we carry on like you wouldn’t believe,” Kimble said with a sly grin. “We’re telling each other what we’re going to do to each other when we come to town. This one’s for joking and bragging rights.”

While staying in his own back yard, Simmons has come a long way since Southern High. In helping put La Salle back among the basketball elite, the 6-foot-7 forward has joined former Explorer stars Tom Gola, Ken Durrett, Joe Bryant and Michael Brooks as the only players in the school’s history with career averages of more than 20 points and 10 rebounds a game.

Barring injury, Simmons will become the fifth player in Division I history to score 3,000 points. He goes into tonight’s game with 2,556 points and a season average of 23.4, which is rising steadily after a slow start. He started the season as a consensus All-American and a potential NBA lottery pick, despite his in-between size.

On the floor, the normally poker-faced Simmons is a model of efficiency and consistency. Although he has never had a 40-point game, he has scored in double figures 90 times in a row. Last season, he was third in the nation with a 28.4 average, trailing only Gathers and Louisiana State’s Chris Jackson. Simmons doesn’t do one thing overpoweringly well, just everything exceptionally well.

In the last two games, he has hit eight of nine three-point shots. He holds the school record for blocked shots, and averages four assists a game.

Looking at the Temple box score, Morris said: “Twenty-two points and 14 rebounds, that has been a very common thing for four years. If there’s a more steady player in the country, I want to see him.”

Morris, who became La Salle’s coach before Simmons’ freshman year, added: “He has improved every year. As a freshman, he scored 600 points, and we went to the NIT finals. The following year, he had 800 points, and we went undefeated in the (Metro Atlantic Athletic) Conference and went to the NCAA. Last year, he had over 900 points, and we went to the NCAA. It’s amazing what he’s been able to do. He could average 40, but we wouldn’t be 8-0. He’s a team player.

“Last year, he set the (North Carolina) Dean Dome record of 38 points. He had 21 rebounds against Villanova. He gets his points in big games. I think Lionel will get 40 (tonight) for the first time.”

Friends say Simmons is as steady off the court as on. “He’s a very positive person,” Kimble said. “He doesn’t let anything bother him.”

A little dental surgery is the least of what Simmons has overcome. A veteran of the tough South Philadelphia streets, Simmons was raised by his mother. He has two older brothers in jail. He vowed not to follow the same route. He will graduate on time this spring with a degree in criminal justice.

Gathers and Kimble saw college as a chance to get out. Simmons preferred to stay, and let that be known when he was being recruited. He chose La Salle over Temple and St. Joseph’s.

“A lot of people thought he wasn’t highly recruited.” Morris said. “That’s not true. He just made it clear he was staying home.”

Simmons said: “We all have different (paths). My drive to get away is to go to the NBA. I’m not really as concerned with me getting away as with my family getting away. La Salle was the right school for me. I wanted to stay in Philly, have my family watch me and build on the high school status I had. I was not really worried about playing on TV, just becoming a better player. Philadelphia is a good place to play basketball. It’s been rejuvenated the last couple years.”

Temple President Peter Liacouras, sitting courtside at Wednesday night’s game, waved at Simmons and said: “I tried to recruit him. I’ve known Lionel since he was 7 or 8. He’s a great kid. It’s amazing, the adversity he’s overcome.” Liacouras cheered when Simmons scored against his team.

Morris said: “He has never so much as back-talked me--and I can scream with the best of them. He’s the easiest guy to coach. Off the court, he’s a terrific kid. He’s going to graduate on time, which is refreshing. He goes out of his way to schools, to speak to kids. He’s really a role model.”

A La Salle official said Morris may “sugar-coat” Simmons a bit but added: “He really is a good guy. He knows he’s the star and he knows he has to live up to that, do the interviews, be seen. He handles it pretty well.”

Simmons played for the U.S. team last summer in the qualifying tournament for the 1990 World Championships and was chosen team captain by the other players.

“He seems quiet, but he’s not (that way) with friends,” Kimble said. “He’s not cocky. He’s a humble guy, down to earth. In high school, he wasn’t as well-known as Pooh (Richardson), Hank and myself. Now, in Philly he may be the most popular. He loves kids. We did a camp together last summer, and there’s no doubt he was the favorite.”

Kimble, who scored 54 points Thursday night in the Lions’ 99-96 victory over St. Joseph’s, would like to re-establish himself as Philly’s “fave rave.” So would Gathers, who hung out with Simmons for the Playboy All-American team photo session last summer and has continued to talk regularly with him.

“I’m very excited to go back home, play against the Train,” Gathers said. “It’ll be pretty competitive out there. We go at it.”

Through a painful smile, Simmons said: “We’ve been talking a lot about this game. (At Temple,) Hank was waving to me, telling me be ready.”

For four seasons, he always has been. This is one Train that is on schedule.