The Belles went on to beat the DC Cobras 48-24 at the U.S. Junior Nationals.

“I dove for the ball, and the second I did, I knew that it wasn’t going to be good,” Doty said. “My teeth went right into the floor."

At first, Doty thought she had knocked her teeth out completely. “I could feel with my tongue the biggest gap between my front teeth," said Doty, ranked 10th overall in the 2008 class by HoopGurlz.com. "I thought my left front tooth was absolutely gone. Out of the root, everything."

The Connecticut commit quickly realized that she had only chipped the teeth after seeing the broken pieces lying on the court in front of her. “I was just sitting there in shock," she said. "Then I see these two little white things, and I just reached out and picked them up."

Caroline Doty

Doty’s mom, Sue Murphy, raced her daughter back to Pennsylvania, where her hometown dentist reattached the fragments in less than two hours. Through the wonders of modern dentistry, Doty emerged from that visit with no signs that she had shattered her teeth just hours earlier. Her mother then drove Doty back to Washington D.C., where she had only missed one game with her team (the Belles won that game 60-14, and remain unbeaten in pool play heading into Wednesday).

Doty will not resume playing until she acquires a mouthpiece.

Doty’s teammates greeted her in the lobby of their hotel with posters, a signed card, and -just to make her smile again - a teething ring.

This isn’t the first time that Doty’s style of relentless, gutsy play has led to injury. Just two months before she had her braces removed, she suffered a chipped tooth during a game. Back in December of 2005, Doty received stitches in her mouth and cheek after colliding with an opposing player.

While her daughter is well-known for making hustle plays all over the court, Murphy can’t help but hold her breathe when she sees her crash to the floor. But she knows that there’s nothing she can do about it. “That’s Caroline," Murphy said "What she does is not a reaction, it’s an instinct. She can’t help it."

A rash of injuries like the ones Doty has endured might force some players to ease up. But not Doty. “It’s just the way I like to play," she said. "I love the game, and I don’t wanna be the person who lays back with a 20-point lead and doesn’t feel like going after the loose ball.

In other words, don’t expect to see Doty suffering any ill effects from her latest run-in with the hardwood.

“I don’t think ‘what if,’ I just do it," she said.

“I’ll probably be on the floor so many times tomorrow."