WARNING: This blog is not for the weak of stomach.

Nick Okorie’s 19-point performance against Lamar on Saturday came at a price for the Texas Tech senior: He lost a tooth in the game.

Okorie was playing some on-ball defense in the second half, when a Lamar player pivoted and knocked him square in the jaw. The blow split Okorie’s lip open and cracked off a hunk of his third molar.

Naturally, the officials called timeout for an injury, Okorie subbed out, and went straight to the dentist to have his broken tooth rebuilt, right? Not hardly. Okorie reached in his mouth and fished out the loose tooth, chucked off the court, swallowed the blood that was filling his mouth, and kept on playing. He even hit a 3-pointer on Tech’s next possession.

“We had a TV timeout so they just cleaned me up, cleaned it out, and looked at it after the game,” Okorie said.

Now Okorie, who participated in the team’s light practice Sunday morning, will wait until Wednesday to see a dentist about rebuilding the damaged molar. He did not receive stitches on his lip; team medical staff looked at the cut and told him the mouth heals itself so quickly stitches would be irrelevant.

He doesn’t know what happened to the piece of tooth the broke off, but says he’s having no trouble chewing and his speech is only slightly altered from the injury.

“They looked at it, but they said as long as it’s not sensitive and it doesn’t really hurt, it’s OK,” he said.