He lost his front tooth, finished with a game-high 19 points and led his team to a state semifinal
Early in the second quarter, Bishop Carroll sophomore Alex Littlejohn took an elbow to the face, caught his front left tooth out of the air and ran to his coach.
He wasn’t in a panic. He handed it to Mike Domnick, ran back onto the court and scored a bucket before the next dead ball. He finished tied for a game-high 19 points and 10 rebounds in the Golden Eagles’ 87-70 win over Bonner Springs on Thursday. Domnick said when Littlejohn handed him the tooth, he wasn’t shocked to see him keep playing.
“That’s Alex,” he said.
Littlejohn is an all-City League first-team 6-foot-3 forward with the nickname “Relentless.” Domnick said he will go after any ball no matter how far away he is on the court, making him “a joy to coach.”
Senior Gunner Lynch, who shared Littlejohn’s title with a game-high and career-high 19 points off the bench, said he didn’t know exactly what was going on until he turned around during a pair of Bonner Springs free throws.
He saw Littlejohn searching the far end of the floor in front of the Bonner Springs student section. Lynch said he heard the Braves fans shout, “There it is,” and put the pieces together after the game.
“Alex will never give up,” Lynch said. “He will get on the ground for every ball and on the board for every shot. In practice and games, he’s the only one that will go up every time.”
Thursday was the second time this season Littlejohn has lost his front left tooth. He said the first one happened against Wichita South in the second game of the season. He kept playing and only afterward had it glued back on. Littlejohn said it was only a matter of time until it came out again, especially the way he plays.
“I just want to play,” Littlejohn said. “I don’t want to be taken out just because my tooth came out. I knew we were still playing, and there isn’t any time to worry about yourself.”
Littlejohn and Lynch were key to Carroll’s biggest offensive performance since a 103-102, five overtime thriller against Kapaun Mt. Carmel in the 2016-17 season.
The Golden Eagles out-rebounded Bonner Springs 44-24 with 16 coming on the offensive glass. They out-assisted the Braves 22-11. And out-shot them by 17.7 percent.
Carroll, which normally slows the game down and finds the best shot, kept up with the Braves’ up-and-down pace and got out to a 42-19 lead before Bonner Springs started to mount a comeback. It never got within eight.
With the win, Carroll reaches the state semifinals and will play the winner of Salina Central and Basehor-Linwood. A matchup with Salina Central would create a rematch of last year’s Class 5A state championship game, which Carroll won 43-41 in overtime.
“We will feed the beast inside, but then you have outside shooters like Carson Lee, Tanner Mans and Carsen Pracht,” Domnick said. “When you run the offense we do, and we share the ball like we do, we’re tough to stop.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2019 at 9:32 PM.