SLIPPERY ROCK - Spoiler is an unfamiliar role for the Slippery Rock University women's basketball team.

It's also the role they now own.

The Rock (7-14) slipped to 1-5 in the PSAC West with a 52-49 loss to Indiana (Pa) University Wednesday at Morrow Field House.

"Our game at Lock Haven will probably be for the cellar," SRU coach Laurel Heilman said. "That's hard to swallow.

"This isn't the kind of season I envisioned having, not after bringing every player back from last year."

The lead changed hands six times and the largest lead for either team was nine points - 36-27 for IUP - with 11:50 left in the game.

The Rock went on a 14-1 run at that point to grab a 41-37 edge with 5:51 remaining. But SRU didn't score again until Stacey Green sank a baseline jumper with 34 seconds left - and with her team trailing 47-41.

SRU was outscored 10-0 in the final 5:30 of the first half.

"I don't know what it is with us," Green said. "We go into offensive funks for seemingly no reason at all. We're a team that has to play with confidence and that type of play has shaken our confidence."

Green led SRU with 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Mame Brumbaugh sank five of six free throws in the final 18 seconds to preserve the win for IUP (9-11, 2-3). The free throws off set 3-pointers by The Rock's Amber McFeely and Kristen Bonner with 12 and two seconds left, respectively.

"Mame is our best foul shooter (84.8 percent) and we wanted the ball in her hands at the end," IUP coach Justin English said.

The win marked the first on the road in eight tries for the Indians this season.

"We talked before the game and I told the girls this was like a playoff game for us," English said. "We had to have it."

SRU treated it like a playoff game as well.

"Never say never, but I can't honestly believe we're going to reel off five conference wins in a row," Heilman said. "I'd be happy to win two in a row right now."

Since getting off to a 4-1 start, The Rock has dropped 13 of 16 games.

"We're not going to quit," Green said. "If we're not going to the playoffs, we're gonna make sure some other teams aren't going to go, either."

Heilman's consolation is that she likes her players.

"This season hasn't been much fun on the court," she said. "But off the court, these are great people. They have a 3.3 combined grade point average, they care about each other and they keep working hard. That won't change."

Women's Box

INDIANA (52)

Mame Brumbaugh 2-9 5-6 9, Holly Miller 4-11 4-5 13, Katie Glaws 1-7 1-3 3, Emily McMahan 4-9 0-0 11, Courtnay Rattigan 0-5 0-0 0, Sejla Borovina 0-0 0-0 0, Julie Gallo 3-7 0-0 7, Kara Taylor 4-14 0-1 9. Totals: 18-62 10-15 52

SLIPPERY ROCK (49)

Amber McFeely 5-9 0-0 12, Stacey Green 8-11 4-7 21, Kristen Bonner 1-9 0-0 2, Jess Caso 0-3 0-0 0, KellyAnn Staudinger 0-2 0-0 0, Angela Greaser 1-6 2-2 4, Amanda Chojnacki 2-6 4-4 8, Dana Stewart 0-1 0-0 0, Cathy Lee Peffer 0-0 0-0 0, Erin Frankovich 0-3 0-1 0. Totals: 17-50 10-14 49

Halftime - IUP, 27-20. 3-point goals - IUP 6-23 (Brumbaugh 0-3, Miller 1-4, Glaws 0-4, McMahan 3-5, Gallo 1-1, Taylor 1-6), SRU 5-17 (McFeely 2-5, Green 1-1, Bonner 1-6, Caso 0-1, Greaser 1-4). Rebounds - IUP 42 (Miller 8), SRU 41 (Green 12). Assists - IUP 12 (Brumbaugh 4), SRU 10 (McFeely 5). Total fouls - IUP 12, SRU 14. Fouled out - McFeely; Technical fouls - none.

IUP 79, SRU 64 -The lead changed hands 17 times - 15 times in the first half - before the Indians (15-4, 3-2) pulled away in the final 13 minutes.The Rock (4-17, 2-4) pulled within 53-49 with 12:52 remaining as Bill Johnson sank a trey and Brandon Thompson added a pair of free throws.But IUP outscored SRU 19-7 over the next 5:12 to put the game away."We quit in those last 12 minutes," SRU coach John Marhefka said. "We gave up a slight run and we took the attitude like, 'here we go again.'"I've seen us fight and compete, yet play poorly or just make mistakes, but that wasn't the case here. We were slow on our cuts, we weren't talking to each other, it just faded away."SRU shot 56 percent from the floor in the first half and trailed just 35-34 at intermission. The Rock grabbed a 40-36 lead in the first minute of the second half on a 3-pointer and layup by Jason Bratten."We made a couple of nice plays to take the lead, and then, nothing," Marhefka said. "We didn't feed off it at all."We were in position to beat Indiana tonight and we didn't go after it."Ayyub Ali led the Indians with 25 points and eight rebounds. Bill Johnson had 21 points for The Rock."I don't know how to reverse the mind-set of losing here," Marhefka said. "If I had that formula, I wouldn't be here. I'd sell it to every coach, own an island and be on it sipping drinks with umbrellas in them."Losing is easy. Winning is tough. I accepted this challenge and I'm going to see it through."Men's BoxINDIANA (79)Brian Kizzie 4-8 0-1 11, Mike Mangel 2-3 0-0 5, G.J. Macon 5-9 1-2 13, Ayyub Ali 10-17 3-3 25, Eddie Peterson 5-12 4-4 14, Eric Castorina 1-2 0-0 3, Lawrence Baker 1-3 0-0 2, Marc Williams 1-6 3-4 6, Dustin Golub 0-0 0-0 0, Dante Baldeh 0-0 0-0 0, Adeniyi Amadou 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 29-61 11-14 79SLIPPERY ROCK (64)Bill Johnson 7-18 6-7 21, Mason Glick 2-6 5-6 10, Ryan Yarosik 0-0 0-0 0, Jason Bratten 3-4 0-0 7, Glenn Reepmeyer 5-11 0-0 10, Brandon Thompson 3-5 5-6 11, Sean White 0-1 1-2 1, Dejan Jancic 2-2 0-0 4. Totals: 22-47 17-21 64Halftime - IUP, 35-34. 3-point goals - IUP 10-20 (Kizzie 3-5, Mangel 1-2, Macon 2-3, Ali 2-2, Peterson 0-3, Castorina 1-2, Williams 1-3), SRU 3-9 (Johnson 1-5, Glick 1-3, Bratten 1-1). Rebounds - IUP 32 (Ali 9), SRU 30 (Reepmeyer 10). Assists - IUP 17 (Kizzie 6), SRU 13 (Glick 5). Total fouls - IUP 21, SRU 14. Fouled out - none; Technical fouls - none.