GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Ten members of the Penn State women's basketball team sat silently in a row in the Van Andel Arena locker room wearing their emotions on their faces. Frustration, disappointment and sadness were evident, along with a certain sense of disbelief.

Only minutes before, the Lady Lions had lost their second straight game and their third straight to the team that sat celebrating in the other locker room, the Michigan Wolverines.

Not only did Michigan deny the Lions their fourth straight 20-win season for the second consecutive time, but with their 66-60 victory also handed Penn State its earliest exit in the Big Ten Tournament since a first-round loss to Ohio State in 1997.

Michigan's Anne "No" Thorius apparently decided her buzzer-beating three-point shot to beat the Lions Feb. 25 in University Park wasn't quite enough, as the senior guard drilled another triple in the game's waning seconds to prevent any hopes of a Lion comeback.

"Big players make big plays," Michigan women's basketball coach Sue Guevara said. "And you saw Anne Thorius make a big, big play."

Penn State focused on shutting down Lion-killer LeeAnn Bies, and their efforts paid off early. Bies missed nine of her first 12 shots and the Lions held a two-point advantage at halftime.

The second half was a different story altogether, as Michigan, led by forwards Raina Goodlow and Stephanie Gandy, caught fire, shooting 69 percent over the final 20 minutes to surge ahead of the seemingly snakebitten Lions.

"I thought Goodlow was the difference," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland said. "We went in with Bies as the focus, but we let some other people get away and that was very disappointing."

Goodlow scored 15 of her team-high 17 points during the second-half charge, while Gandy contributed 10 of her 12 after the break. But the biggest blow again came from Thorius, who finished with 15 points and nine assists, and afterwards displayed the underdog mindset the Wolverines have come to embrace.

"We might not have the best shooters like Penn State, but we believe in ourselves and we believe we can hit the shots that we need to hit," she said.

The loss dropped Penn State to 19-9 and likely cost the Lions a higher seed in next week's NCAA tournament, while the Wolverines improved to 18-10 and were given a confidence boost after pulling off their third straight "upset" of the Lions.

"I think it's an upset, I think it's the third time we've upset them," Guevara said. "I think we're still the underdog because we're not the 18th-ranked team in the country."

Michigan's continued mastery of Penn State has been a mystery to many, but Lions senior Maren Walseth said her team needs to make sure other opponents don't develop a similar hold on Penn State.

"They've figured out what buttons to push to deflate our team," Walseth said. "We have to figure out what those buttons are, and change that, because obviously there are other teams who we're going to play in the first rounds (of the NCAA's) who are going to see that."