Jordyne Crunk has played in every game since Christmas with a stress fracture in her foot, but has still managed 24 minutes and seven points per game.

The freshman guard said it was the first time in her basketball career she has been injured, and the first time she has ever played injured.

She said she suffered the injury after Christmas, around the time of the Dec. 30 Valparaiso game, meaning she has played in 19 games since injuring her foot.

Crunk said Sam Laingen, a team trainer, told her she should get an X-ray on her foot; however, Crunk refused.

“I didn’t want to have to sit out and miss time playing for the team,” Crunk said.

With the trainer’s advice, Crunk would not see a doctor. Not even at the request of her coaches or parents would she agree to it, Eastern head coach Brady Sallee said.

“I think she knew (she was hurt),” Sallee said. “In her mind, if she (saw a doctor), that was going to be it. She just refused to let anybody that could sit her down, sit her down.”

Sallee said Crunk would not let him convince her to see a doctor.

Crunk said she was OK because she carried around a bottle of Tylenol with her everywhere she went.

In the women’s basketball team’s final game of the season, Crunk scored a career-high 20 points, which was the best on the team in the game. She played 33 of 40 minutes – second on the team.

“She (scored 20 points) and she was in pain the whole time,” sophomore guard Ta’Kenya Nixon said. “I have a lot of respect for her when you look at what she did for us.”

Crunk might have played hurt for 19 games, but Sallee said the most impressive part is she practiced five or six days a week.

“There in January and February, Jess (Parker) was hurt, Jackie (Herman) was hurt, Pilar (Walker) and Stephanie (Benninger) were hurt, those kids practiced every second of every practice – (Crunk) and Ta’Kenya and Kelsey (Wyss),” Sallee said.

Wyss said Crunk showed her unselfishness by playing in pain for so long.

“It showed that to her the team mattered more than how she was feeling,” Wyss said.

After the season ended last Wednesday, Sallee said Crunk’s parents finally convinced her to go to a doctor.

“I think her parents kind of said, ‘OK, we’re mom and dad and this is what’s going to happen,'” Sallee said.

Given the production Crunk had during the season, on an injured foot, Sallee said he expects Crunk to bring even more to the table when she is healthy.

Sallee said Crunk is the type of player, who he can win a lot of games with at Eastern.

“You always want kids that are willing to run through that brick wall,” Sallee said. “Her brick wall was a broken foot, and she played right through it.”

Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-7944 or admcnamee@eiu.edu