CLAREMONT, Calif. - Ruva Kiara had six points in an 8-0 run for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's basketball team that tied the score with 24 seconds left, but Cal Lutheran's Alline Ballard scored with 0.8 seconds left to give the Regals a 57-55 win over the Athenas on Wednesday evening at Roberts Pavilion. 

The loss drops CMS to 9-15 on the season and 5-10 in the SCIAC and takes the Athenas out of SCIAC Tournament contention after a season in which eight of their 10 conference losses were within a possession in the final minute. Cal Lutheran moves to 18-6 overall and 10-5 in the SCIAC with the win. 

CMS also had two games with first-place Whittier this season that came down to the final shot, with the Poets winning 48-46 at Roberts Pavilion on a shot with 0.3 seconds left, and then taking the rematch 49-47 when the Athenas missed a game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer. CMS was also tied with Pomona-Pitzer and La Verne in the final minute of losses, tied with Occidental with 1:30 left in a loss, and missed three-pointers to tie in the final minute of losses to Chapman and Caltech. 

This time around, the Athenas trailed by 10 heading into the fourth quarter, but scored seven points in the first 1:40 to cut the lead to three, with Katie Resendiz converting a layup, Ava Grey knocking down a three-pointer, and Kayla Ishibashi hitting a jumper.  

Cal Lutheran extended the lead back up to 55-47 with 4:09 to go, but Kiara was able to drive to the basket for a layup with 3:04 to go, then hit a twisting one-hander in the paint with 2:17 left to cut the lead to 55-51. After a timeout, Tanya Ghai found Ishibashi with a perfect backdoor cut to make it just a two-point game. 

Resendiz grabbed a defensive rebound, and after a pair of timeouts, Kiara was able to beat her defender off the dribble for a clean lay-up to tie the score up at 55-55. CMS used two fouls that it had to give, which left Cal Lutheran with the ball under its own basket with five seconds left. Ballard took the inbounds pass with her back to the basket on the left block, spun back to her right, and scooped in a tough shot with 0.8 seconds left to give the Regals the win. 

Kiara led CMS with 14 points, while Resendiz had 11. Ballard led all scorers with 20, including the winning basket. 

CMS will close out the 2024-25 campaign with a road game at Chapman on Saturday at 2 p.m.