SALISBURY - An 18-year-old basketball player was killed and eight other people were injured Wednesday when a 15-passenger van headed to the Dell Curry High School Basketball Shootout in Charlotte flipped into a front yard along N.C. 150.

Three passengers were flown to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem. Two were in surgery late Wednesday at Rowan Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, Rowan Regional officials said.

At least one of the hospitalized had life-threatening injuries, the N.C. Highway Patrol said. Three people, including the van's 22-year-old driver, were treated and released, spokesman Phil Whitesell said.

Dell Curry tournament officials said the deceased was a player from Our Savior New America School in Centereach, N.Y. The private K-12 school on Long Island was scheduled to play North Mecklenburg High today in the tournament, named for the former NBA player.

Jeff Hood, executive director of the Dell Curry Foundation, said the tournament would go on with a moment of silence today to honor the New York team.

"It's an unfortunate tragedy and we're trying to make sure we do those things that are in the best interests of their team and their families as well as for the event," Hood said.

Chief Rusty Alexander of the Locke Fire Department was first to the one-vehicle crash site about five miles west of Salisbury. He said eight people were thrown from the van when it flipped along the two-lane highway between 4:30 and 5 p.m. He said rescuers had to cut the deceased person from the wreckage.

The deceased was a 7-foot, 2-inch exchange student from France. Among the injured, the hospital spokesman said, are four of the coach/pastor's children, two others from France and a teenager from West Africa. The youngest is 12 and the oldest 24.

The boys team and its supporters had been traveling from a tournament in Delaware to Charlotte in two 15-passenger vans, Alexander said. When the driver of the first van didn't see the second in the rear-view mirror, he turned the van around and then found the wreck.

According to the N.C. Highway Patrol, Emily Elizabeth Stelzer, 22, was driving the second van and ran off the right side of N.C. 150 while rounding a curve, then overcorrected, veered back to the left and lost control. Trooper R.G. Willis said the van overturned several times and hit a tree.

Stelzer, who is from Centereach and is the pastor's daughter, was charged with driving left of center and with misdemeanor death by vehicle, the trooper said. She saw a magistrate and then rejoined the group late Wednesday.

Stelzer's brother was in critical condition with stomach and head injuries, authorities said.

Three girls who'd been thrown from the wrecked van were found lying together underneath a tree, rescuers said. An air-freshener from the van -- shaped like an angel holding a baby -- had landed on a branch above them.

"It just looked like somebody had taken a Christmas ornament and hung it in the tree," Assistant Fire Chief Dave Linker said.

The trooper said he believes the vans were driving on the rural highway to avoid congestion on the interstate.

The young people from the second van were taken to the Locke fire station, where Red Cross volunteers brought McDonald's hamburgers, french fries and soda.

Firetrucks were parked outside the station, leaving an indoor basketball hoop clear. One boy passed the time quietly shooting hoops.

The group had hotel rooms reserved in Charlotte, but all of the adults were at the hospital, so the Red Cross arranged for the young people to spend the night on cots at a Salisbury church.

They had not been told of the death, Red Cross officials said.

In Centereach, about 50 people gathered at the Lutheran church's school Wednesday night, elder John Allen said.

"It's a very tight-knit group that supports our pastor," he said. "We all came and prayed and held each other. We just held each other."

A woman who answered the phone at the church late Wednesday said family members were being contacted and people were on their way to North Carolina.