INDIANA, Pa. - The season of mystery is over for the Slippery Rock University women's basketball team.

"That's exactly what it was," SRU coach Laurel Heilman said after Wednesday night's 64-59 win at Indiana (Pa.) in her team's season finale. "I still feel like we're a playoff team."

But they're not.

Despite the victory over IUP, The Rock (10-17, 4-8) finished out of the PSAC playoffs for the third straight season.

"What worries me is that our juniors have never experienced what it's like to be in the playoffs," Heilman said. "And they'll be leading us next year."

SRU trailed 15-10 early in the first half before using a 12-0 run to grab the lead it never lost.

The lead peaked at 40-26 with 18:11 left in the game. Indiana (9-17, 2-9) pulled within 58-57 with 4:06 remaining.

"We're not used to playing with such a big lead," Heilman said, jokingly. "We almost gave it up."

Sophomore Amanda Chojnacki and senior Stacey Green sank layups to widen the margin to five, however, and SRU hung on for the win.

Green, forward Erin Frankovich and guard Sarah Cybulski are the seniors leaving SRU's program.

Green had 13 points and 12 rebounds Wednesday and ends her career seventh on SRU's all-time scoring list with 1,329 points and third in all-time rebounds with 937.

"That's the way I'll have to be remembered, I guess," a somber Green said. "I really wanted to get Coach Heilman into the playoffs in my senior year.

"I love all of these players and I love my coach. She gives her life to this. She deserved better."

Kristen Bonner paced The Rock with 16 points and Chojnacki added 14. Grove City graduate Amber McFeely had six assists, giving her 143 for the year and pulling her within 30 of the program's career record.

"Hopefully, Amber will raise her game and become the all-around point guard that she can be," Heilman said. "We'll be looking for post players, but so will Clarion and IUP. We're all losing players at that position.

"I expected us to be better. Almost everyone on this team had a better season last year. It shouldn't have happened that way."

The Rock averaged 54.2 points per game this year - last in the PSAC - and cracked the 60-point mark Wednesday for only the seventh time all season.

Green admitted the team didn't work hard enough in the off-season.

"I have to take some of the responsibility for that," she said. "We just missed the playoffs last year and we all thought, with another year's experience, it would just happen for us this time.

"It doesn't work that way."

Mame Brumbaugh paced IUP with 19 points. The Indians took 32 3-point shots among their 63 field goal attempts.

Karns City graduate Courtnay Rattigan played 26 minutes, scored four points and grabbed five rebounds. She will end her injury-plagued collegiate career Saturday when IUP hosts Clarion.

The Rock, meanwhile, is left to wonder about what went wrong this year.

"Something was just missing and I don't know what it was," Heilman said. "Off the court, these are great people. We started during the second week of classes and kept working at it right up until now.

"Not one player quit or left the team all year. That's a first for me. But on the court, we just didn't get it done."

SLIPPERY ROCK (64)

Amber McFeely 1-6 1-2 4, Stacey Green 6-10 0-0 13, Kristen Bonner 6-12 0-0 16, KellyAnn Staudinger 1-5 0-0 2, Erin Frankovich 3-6 0-0 6, Angela Greaser 0-3 2-2 2, Amanda Chojnacki 5-6 4-5 14, Jess Caso 1-2 1-2 3, Dana Stewart 2-3 0-0 4, Amanda Kaufman 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 25-53 8-11 64.

INDIANA (59)

Mame Brumbaugh 6-19 2-2 19, Molly Miller 5-12 0-0 13, Katie Glaws 2-6 2-2 7, Emily McMahan 3-9 0-0 7, Courtnay Rattigan 2-4 0-0 4, Lauren Fisher 1-5 0-0 2, Kara Taylor 2-8 2-4 7. Totals: 21-63 6-8 59.

Halftime - SRU, 33-26. 3-point goals - SRU 6-13 (McFeely 1-2, Green 1-1, Bonner 4-7, Greaser 0-3), IUP 11-32 (Brumbaugh 5-12, Miller 3-6, Glaws 1-4, McMahan 1-6, Fisher 0-1, Taylor 1-3). Rebounds - SRU 41 (Green 12), IUP 32 (Brumbaugh 9). Assists - SRU 19 (McFeely 6), IUP 11 (Brumbaugh 4). Total fouls - SRU 9, IUP 12. Fouled out - Miller (IUP); Technical fouls - none.