Eastern junior guard Jordyne Crunk scored seven points Saturday night in Edwardsville, but three of them gave Eastern a lead late in the game.

With 6:35 left in the second half, Crunk hit a three pointer to give Eastern a two-point lead — a lead they wouldn’t give up the rest of the game.

Crunk’s three pointer was the only one she made during the game, missing her only other attempt.

Although she only scored seven points, Eastern head coach Lee Buchanan said she played a really good “floor game.”

“She played good defense and took some good shots,” Buchanan said.

The game was in Edwardsville, which is 30 minutes from Crunk’s high school, Althoff Catholic. Buchanan said Crunk likes playing well in front of her friends and family.

“She played really well,” Buchanan said. “She’s not afraid. She wants the ball in late game situations.”

OVC glance

The Eastern women’s basketball team boasted the best record going into Monday night with an 8-2 record in the Ohio Valley Conference.

The team is one win better than Eastern Kentucky. Eastern Kentucky has a 7-2 record in the OVC.

But the Panthers are just ahead of teams like Eastern Kentucky, Murray State and Belmont overall in the league. The Panthers lost to Eastern Kentucky and Murray State once this year.

Eastern Kentucky and Belmont were both in action Monday night. Eastern Kentucky played a conference game against Tennessee-Martin and Belmont played Morehead State.

The OVC had a full slate of games on Saturday. Tennessee Tech beat Belmont by five points. Eastern took down Southern Illinois-Edwardsville by five points, too.

Nixon chasing record

Senior guard Ta’Kenya Nixon is 146 points away from breaking former Panther Rachel Galligan’s all-time scoring record at Eastern.

Nixon has a minimum of eight games left to try to break the record, but with every low scoring game she’s fading further and further away.

Nixon needs to average at least 18.25 points per game the rest of the way to break the record.

But if Nixon doesn’t break the record, she’ll still end up high in the record books.

She is currently third all time with 1,746 points in her career. She needs 61 points in eight games to break Nancy Kassebaum’s second place standing all time.

Kassebaum held the Eastern record for points scored from 1983-2009, when Galligan finished her career.

The Panthers’ next game is at 3 p.m. Saturday in Cape Girardeau, Mo. against Southeast Missouri.

Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-2812 or admcnamee@eiu.edu.