College basketball player Deng Mayar dies in drowning accident

A Division I college basketball player died over the weekend in a drowning accident.

The University of Nebraska Omaha has announced that senior forward Deng Mayar died in a drowning accident in a reservoir in Utah on Saturday. Mayar had transferred from North Dakota and was entering his first season with Omaha.

According to a report from FOX 13 in Salt Lake City, Mayar was swimming with a friend at the Blackridge Reservoir in Herriman, Utah, at around 6 p.m. on Saturday evening when both of the men began to struggle. The friend, 21-year-old Sa Mafutaga began, managed to make it to shore but realized Mayar remained in danger. Mafutaga went back into the water but was unable to save Mayar.

Bystanders went into the water and pulled Mafutaga out, but Mayar did not resurface. Rescue crews searched for Mayar for hours and eventually recovered his body using a submersible robot at around 10:40 p.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

“Our hearts are broken to hear the tragic news of Deng’s passing,” North Dakota basketball coach Paul Sather said in a statement. “He was a wonderful person with a heart the size of a gym. Our thoughts are with his parents and family, along with all his teammates from UND and UNO. As competitive as he was on the court, he had a gentle nature and kind soul off the court. Deng will be greatly missed by all of those that knew and loved him.”

Omaha coach Chris Crutchfield also extended condolences on behalf of the Mavericks.

“After competing against him for two years, we were elated to add him to our team and he made tremendous progress this summer. Deng was a joy to be around and made our culture better. We will miss him greatly. Jodi and I, along with our entire program, send our hearts and prayers to Deng’s family, friends and teammates,” Crutchfield said.

A GoFundMe that was started by Mayar’s sister had raised more than $10,000 as of Monday morning.

Mayar, a 6-foot-8 forward, was raised in Salt Lake City. He averaged 6.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game with North Dakota last season. He transferred earlier this year to Omaha, which made its first ever NCAA Tournament appearance last season by winning the Summit League.