He Carried Team to NCAA Tournament, Died Days Later

A basketball player from Grand Canyon University has died days after playing in his first NCAA tournament. California native Oscar Frayer, 23—who lost his father in a car accident when he was only 7—died in a Tuesday car accident that also killed his older sister, 28-year-old Andrea Moore, and an unidentified friend, the school's athletics department said Thursday. Their vehicle rear-ended a California Highway Patrol car that was assisting a disabled tractor-trailer on the side of I-5 near Lodi around 2:30am, CBS Sports reports. The vehicle then hit a tree and caught fire. Officers suffered serious injuries but are expected to survive. Days earlier, Frayer had tweeted in celebration of the Antelopes' season, which ended with a first-round 86-74 loss to No. 2 seed Iowa on Saturday, per the Arizona Republic.

"THANK YOU LOPE NATION for the last 5 years..it's been nothing less than amazing," wrote Frayer, who would've received a degree in communications next month, per CNN. He was a starter for three seasons but wasn't eligible to play in 2019-2020 because his grades were too low. However, Frayer bounced back this season and was "instrumental" in taking GCU to its first men's NCAA Division I tournament as 15th seed, per the Republic. The department noted Frayer found basketball after his mother moved with her family from Oakland, Calif., to Hayward "in search of healing" following the death of her husband. Frayer "was the heartbeat of our team," said head couch Bryce Drew. "I cannot put into words the hurt and sadness we all feel." (More NCAA stories.)