It was an emotional night for Michigan's Veronica Hicks, left, who hit a 35-foot jumper at the buzzer in regulation before the Wolverines lost in double overtime to Minnesota at Crisler Arena on Thursday. Hicks was honored during senior night activities after the game.

Melanie Maxwell I AnnArbor.com

Veronica Hicks was at the podium, twirling a black pen in her hand. Had her team won, the Michigan women's basketball team's senior guard would have been a ball of tears, joy and excitement.

Instead there was this. Surprise. Shock. None of it had set in, even after she gave an almost 10-minute senior day speech following the game.

The reason was easy. Michigan thought it was going to win Thursday night, looked like it was going to win Thursday night. But it didn’t. Instead, Hicks saw her home career end with an 82-78 double overtime loss to Minnesota in Crisler Arena.

“I’m not super pumped about the ending,” Hicks said. “Because it wasn’t the one that I ... wanted.”

It was quite close to it, though.

For the second straight night inside Crisler Arena, a player hit an improbable buzzer-beater. On Wednesday night, Wisconsin’s Josh Gasser made a 3-pointer from about 25 feet to give the Badgers a 53-52 win over the Michigan men's basketball team.

Almost 24 hours later, Hicks took the ball with 4.4 seconds left in regulation, took three dribbles and heaved the ball at the basket from about 35 feet. It was a play Michigan coach Kevin Borseth said he had been waiting to use for four seasons and in his lone senior’s last home game, he pulled it out.

Like Gasser’s shot the night before, Hicks' shot bounced off the backboard and through the rim.

It meant an improbable win for Gasser and the Badgers. For Hicks and the Wolverines, it meant overtime.

“The funny part is I was doing it at the beginning of shootaround, going back and forth shooting a half-court shot and saying ‘Yeah guys, this is going to happen,’” Hicks said.

“When they went up by three and there were only 4 seconds left and coach showed us the play, I was like ‘I practiced it today.’”

Still, shock reverberated around Crisler Arena. Michigan (16-11, 9-6 Big Ten) celebrated like it had won. Hicks, who scored 14 points in her final home game, fell to her knees.

Her teammates mobbed her.

Michigan's Jenny Ryan, Rachel Sheffer and Courtney Boylan celebrate with Veronica Hicks (on court) after her 3-point buzzer beater to send Thursday's game with Minnesota into overtime.

Melanie Maxwell I AnnArbor.com

“How do you know on a desperation heave? How do you really know,” Borseth said. “It’s desperation. But she put it up there and made it.

“Call it what you want to call it. She made the basket.”

It could have been a capping moment to the career of a thousand-point scorer. Instead, it will become a footnote to an emotionally taxing loss in Michigan’s first double-overtime game since an 86-81 win at LSU on Dec. 16, 2001.

Michigan’s players said they weren’t tired by the second overtime, but shots didn’t fall. Borseth seemed concerned players didn’t want to take critical shots.

And what had been elation an hour earlier turned to devastation with 28.9 seconds left in the second overtime after a Carmen Reynolds 3-pointer was blocked by Minnesota junior Jackie Voigt and then the Gophers (12-16, 4-11) found Brianna Mastey, who scored 19 points, for a wide-open layup to give Minnesota an 80-76 lead.

The Wolverines shot 29.4 percent in the two overtimes and missed two opportunities — a Hicks missed layup and a Courtney Boylan missed jump shot as the buzzer sounded — to win in the first overtime.

The Wolverines fell out of a third-place tie with Wisconsin in the Big Ten standings and Minnesota, one of three teams under .500 in the conference, swept Michigan this year.

“We all had opportunities to hit the shots in the second overtime,” Borseth said. “And it didn’t fall.”

Michael Rothstein covers Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein .