Veronica Sheffey hit a running 5-footer from the left side of the lane at the buzzer Saturday afternoon to give San Diego State’s women’s basketball team a 59-58 win over UNLV — ending the Lady Rebels’ run of 22 straight Mountain Conference wins.

“That win was needed,” said Aztecs’ head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson. We had some recent losses that we felt could have gone the other way. We were struggling a little bit being consistent.”

The Aztecs had lost five of their last seven games to fall to 15-7 overall and 3-5 in Mountain West play. And after taking a quick 9-3 Saturday behind the all-around play of freshman guard Nat Martinez, the Aztecs went scoreless for nearly eight minutes as UNLV scored 13 straight points over the first and second periods to take a 34-26 lead at the half.

The visitors never trailed by fewer than six until the Aztecs scored four straight to make it 52-48 with 4:50 to go. The Aztecs cut the margin to three with four minutes to go on Cali Clark’s baseline three-pointer from the left side and Sheffey tied the score at 55-all on a drive from the left side with 61 seconds to play.

Martinez tied the game again at 57-57 with a pair of free throws with 26.4 seconds to play. UNLV regained the lead when guard Amarachi Kimpson sank the second of two free throws with 3.2 seconds to play.

SDSU called a timeout to get the ball into the frontcourt and set up a play for Sheffey. But the junior guard had to improvise after the Lady Rebels adjusted the defense. Sheffey drove and launched a line drive while on the run; as she did, she was hit from the side by a Lady Rebels defender.

“I thought the shot was going to be short,” said Terry-Hutson. It banked home off the backboard just as the lights flashed red. “We put our hopes in Sheffey’s hands and she came through.”

Said Sheffey, who led the Aztecs with 16 points: “They were playing me heavy on the left side, but I just had to get there>”

Aside from giving up 13 straight points in the first half while going 3-for-12 from the floor, the Aztecs played the conference leaders even thanks to a strong defensive effort. SDSU held UNLV to one field goal in the final 4 ½ minutes.

“We held them well below their average in both halves and the game,” said Terry-Hutson. “I knew we would give ourselves a chance today. The energy was electric in here.”

San Diego State’s three starting guards totalled 38 points with Martinez finishing with 12 and Naomi Panganiban 10. Both teams shot 40% from the floor with the Aztecs holding a 31-29 edge in rebounds (Clark had a game-high nine plus two blocks and three steals) with three fewer turnovers.

“We haven’t been happy with some of our recent efforts,” said Terry-Hutson. “But this was a strong effort. We’ve going to play Las Vegas (16-5, 8-1) at least one more time and maybe twice.”

“We know what we’re capable of,” said Sheffey. “We can beat anyone in the conference. We play our best basketball when we share it.”