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Car Accident Can't Keep Player From Basketball Tournament

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (WCCO) -- You don't have to go to downtown Minneapolis to find big basketball games this weekend.

Mall of America is hosting the 3X3U National Championship, which is a three-on-three basketball tournament. The bracket is made up of NCAA conferences, with the teams made up of four players from school within those conferences.

One of the players, Frankie Ferrari from the University of San Francisco, didn't know if he was going to be able to play in the tournament.

On Thursday around 11 p.m., he was driving back to his hotel. Ferrari was in the Lyn-Lake area of Minneapolis when a driver hit his car, and then drove off.

Frankie Ferrari
(credit: CBS)

"I was halfway in the intersection [of West Lake and Lyndale], and all of a sudden it was like, 'Boom!' My car got smacked. I did a couple of 360s in the middle of the intersection," Ferrari said.

By the time he was able to gather his senses, he was in the back of an ambulance, and on the way to the hospital. He was lucky. Amazingly, he still played Friday morning.

"I got a little cut on my foot; that's got stitches. I'm a little sore. I feel like I've played in an NFL football game, but other than that, thank God that I'm safe," Ferrari said. "It was a crazy situation. I spent the whole night in the hospital, slept about two hours, and then played Friday. It's been a whirlwind!"

His team, the WCC, hasn't lost a game.

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