Brad Waldow would not even let a knocked out tooth stop him from leading his team to victory on Saturday.
The Saint Mary’s sophomore forward scored a career-high 23 points and matched his career high with 16 rebounds in the Gaels’ 69-66 overtime win over San Diego in the semifinals of the West Coast Conference tournament in Las Vegas. What’s most impressive is that Waldow continued to play well even after taking an elbow to the mouth that knocked his tooth out and caused bleeding.
Waldow was trying to defend USD’s Chris Manresa with 5:17 left in regulation and his team up 51-50 when the injury occurred. As Manresa was coming down from grabbing a rebound, his elbow caught Waldow in the mouth, knocking out the Saint Mary’s forward’s tooth.
There was a humorous moment when Waldow, frantic to stay in the game, tried handing his tooth to coach Randy Bennett, who wanted no part of it. Bennett directed Waldow towards the team trainer, and Waldow just dropped the tooth on the ground so he could get back to the game.
Waldow recorded four points, three rebounds, and one block after getting his tooth knocked out.
“He’s gonna go to the doctor now to see if he can get it back in,” Bennett told the media after the game, per the school’s Twitter account.
In addition to losing one tooth, Waldow apparently had a second tooth that was barely still attached. This image post-knock out seems to show his other front tooth hanging:
Waldow tweeted late Saturday that he was going to have surgery.
Going to surgery wish me luck. #DoItForTheTooth
— Waledough (@bradwaldow) March 10, 2013
The good news is Waldow has a day to recover before Saint Mary’s faces Gonzaga in the tournament championship game on Monday. Manresa should also be thankful that the tooth didn’t get stuck in his elbow, which we’ve actually seen happen before.
Video via Run the Floor
