The Hawaii women’s basketball team hopes turning the page into a new year will help the Rainbow Wahine turn their recent struggles around.

San Diego State’s Veronica Sheffey drove for the winning basket with eight seconds remaining, and one second on the shot clock, and the Aztecs, who trailed for much of the second half, came back to pull out a 54-52 win over Hawaii on Saturday to close the San Diego Classic at Viejas Arena in San Diego.

Hawaii called its final timeout to draw up one more play that got MeiLani McBee an open look for 3 from the left corner. Her shot was just a tad strong and Ritorya Tamilo managed to grab the rebound but couldn’t get a tough putback to fall as the buzzer sounded.

The Rainbow Wahine held the Aztecs to 33% (19-for-57) shooting from the field but shot 4-for-20 from the 3-point line in a frustrating loss.

Freshman Naomi Panganiban led SDSU (11-2) with a game-high 24 points on 9-for-18 shooting. San Diego State outrebounded UH 30-28, with 13 coming on the offensive glass.

“We lost the battle on the boards,” Hawaii coach Laura Beeman said. “We gave up offensive rebounds. You’re not winning many ballgames doing that. Our rebounding was bad again.”

Hawaii was outscored 16-10 in the fourth quarter after leading 42-38 and dropped to 6-5 overall with its fourth loss in the past five games.

Lily Wahinekapu scored five of her eight points in the fourth quarter and Imani Perez drove to the lane for a 3-point play with 37 seconds left in the game to tie it at 52-all.

Daejah Phillips, who led UH with 11 points off the bench, fouled out in the last two minutes. Brooklyn Rewers added 10 points off the bench, all in the first half.

“We got a little bit tight at the end,” Beeman said. “(SDSU) got a little bit more aggressive on Lily toward the end with their hedging. For whatever reason our guards weren’t getting the ball inside. They started to double down (on Rewers), but they had been doing that all game against Ritorya.”

Panganiban gave the Aztecs an 18-14 lead at the end of the first quarter when she buried a 3 from well behind the line as time expired to give her 10 points in the opening 10 minutes.

SDSU started 1-for-9 from the field before back-to-back UH turnovers led to an Adryana Quezada layup and a Panganiban 3 to put the Aztecs ahead 13-10.

Freshman Kaelyn Hamilton extended the SDSU lead with the Aztecs’ fourth 3-pointer to start the second quarter.

Hawaii responded with a 10-0 run, with a Wahinekapu 3 following a 3-point play by Phillips giving UH the lead at 22-21.

Panganiban ended a drought of nearly six minutes without a point for SDSU with a jumper from the corner of the key and was the only SDSU player to score in the final 8 minutes, 51 seconds of the first half.

Mia ‘Uhila found Rewers under the basket for a layup as time expired to give Hawaii a 30-25 halftime lead, as the Aztecs’ starting lineup combined to shoot 0-for-11 from the field.

The layup by Rewers gave her 10 points in the first half on 4-for-6 shooting to make it three games in a row scoring in double figures.

A 3-point play by Tamilo to start the second half gave UH its largest lead at eight points, but she was called for a flagrant foul for an inadvertent elbow that gave San Diego State two free throws.

The Aztecs closed within a point before McBee canned back-to-back 3-pointers to help UH remain in front, 42-38, heading into the final quarter.

Panganiban gave SDSU its first lead of the second half on a 3 from the right-wing with 5:55 remaining to give her 24 of the Aztecs’ 45 points.

“My preparation was a little bit better today, but I think it just all goes back to the belief and the confidence that my teammates and my coaches have in me,” Panganiban said in a postgame interview on the Mountain West Network. “They told me, ‘Shoot the ball, shoot the ball’, and I mean I’m not going to not shoot the ball.”

Hawaii finishes its nonconference slate 6-4 and will not play again until Jan. 2 at UC Santa Barbara in Big West Conference play.

Sophomore Jade Peacock earned her second start of the season against the Aztecs for Hawaii, which has used seven different starting lineups in 11 games.