CLAREMONT, Calif. - Rhe Nae Leach scored on a fast break lay-up off a turnover with three-tenths of a second remaining for a three-point play to give the Whittier women's basketball team a late 48-46 comeback win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Saturday at Roberts Pavilion. 

Leach finished with 32 of the 48 points for Whittier, which moves to 5-1 overall and 1-0 in SCIAC play, while CMS slips to 3-5 overall and 0-1 in league play. 

CMS led by four with just under nine seconds left, when Whittier's Kristen Lopez was able to hit a 25 foot three-pointer off an inbounds pass to cut it to 46-45 with 5.8 seconds remaining. Prior to the shot, Whittier had been 0-16 from three-point territory on the day. 

The Athenas advanced the ball to the frontcourt after a timeout, but Lopez was able to make her second big play in success and come up with a steal in traffic and then send Leach in behind the defense for a breakaway. 

Leach converted to put the Poets ahead by one with 0.3 seconds left and was fouled, but suffered a minor injury on the play and the ensuing foul shot was taken by Yaneli Rosales, who converted to make the score 48-46. 

In a wild finish, CMS inbounded the ball under its own basket and nearly was able to send the game to overtime, as Grace Florendo threw a long 70-foot inbounds pass into the vacated front court. The ball took one hop and bounced right under the basket, where Tanya Ghai was able to run it down and flip it in. But after a video review, the officials ruled that the shot came after the basket and Whittier was able to come away with the two-point road win.

CMS took a 42-36 lead with 5:41 left in the fourth quarter, when Amanda Kerner and Ghai hit consecutive three-pointers off of feeds from Syona Mandaym to break a 36-36 tie and force a Whittier timeout. Whittier got the next four points before Resendiz hit a short jumper in the paint after Kerner's baseline drive and dish.

The score was still 44-42 when Ghai hit two pressure foul shots with nine seconds left to put CMS up four, but the wild finish enabled Whittier to come away with the win.

Resendiz had a double-double for CMS with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Kerner finished with nine points and Ghai had seven points and seven rebounds. The Athenas were playing without leading scorer Renee Chong, who missed the game with an injury.

CMS will return to action with a road game at La Verne on Saturday, before returning home to face Wheaton (Mass.) on Dec. 30.