Advertisement

College basketball player among three killed in car crash tragedy

sam goodwin
Sports Editor
·4-min read
Oscar Frayer, pictured here in action during NCAA March Madness.
Oscar Frayer was among three people killed in the crash. Image: Twitter/Getty

The sporting world is reeling following the tragic death of college basketball player Oscar Frayer.

The Grand Canyon forward died in a car accident on Tuesday, just three days after the first and last NCAA tournament game of his five-year college career.

NBA TRADE DEADLINE: Vukovic and Oladipo among massive moves

SERIOUSLY: NBA fan booted from game over 'offensive' t-shirt

The 23-year-old was with his sister and girlfriend in an SUV early on Tuesday morning when it veered off the road, hit a California Highway Patrol car, struck a tree and caught fire.

All three occupants of the SUV reportedly died, while two California Highway Patrol personnel sustained serious injuries.

Photos posted by the CHP Stockton Facebook page show the extent of the damage.

College basketball rocked by devastating tragedy

Only 57 hours before the crash, Frayer had been playing No. 2 seed Iowa in the West bracket of March Madness.

Frayer, a redshirt senior, finished with eight points, five assists, three rebounds and three blocks, and delivered one of the game's highlights with a chase-down block of the Hawkeyes' Connor McCaffery.

Frayer, whose father also reportedly died in a car crash, had been visiting family in California after the loss to Iowa.

A member of the Grand Canyon men's basketball team since 2016, Frayer started as a freshman out of Hayward, California, and accrued 970 points and 515 rebounds over the course of five years.

He was forced to sit out what would have been his senior year due to academic ineligibility, but made it back to the court this season and helped lead the Antelopes to the first March Madness berth in school history.

Oscar Frayer, pictured here in action for Grand Canyon in 2018.
Oscar Frayer in action for Grand Canyon in 2018. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)

The program won both the WAC regular season and tournament championship - its first titles since making the jump to Division I in 2013.

Following the loss to Iowa, Frayer posted what turned out to be his final tweet, thanking the Grand Canyon fans for following along.

"I bleed purple FOREVER!!!!" he wrote.

"THANK YOU LOPE NATION for the last 5 years..it’s been nothing less than amazing..from President Mueller, to our coaching staff, to my brothers who I compete with everyday..it’s love FOREVER."

News of Frayer's death has sparked an outpouring of emotion on social media.

With Jack Baer - Yahoo Sports

Click here to sign up to our newsletter for all the latest and breaking stories from Australia and around the world.