Cecilia C. Ekperi ’09, a leader of Harvard’s black community remembered by friends for her outgoing personality, died Thursday after she fell ill during a basketball game. She was 19.

Ekperi was playing basketball at the National Cathedral School in Washington D.C. with three other friends when, after taking a shot and landing on her feet, she sat down on the ground, and then proceeded to lay prone on the floor. The three friends, including Patrick Jean Baptiste ’09, thought that Ekperi was playing a joke and was pretending to be hurt. The two other friends were not Harvard students.

When they realized that Ekperi was unresponsive, one of the friends—Sarah Nutman, a rising senior at the Georgetown Day School, who is a certified medical technician—found that Ekperi still had a pulse and began to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. When Ekperi’s pulse stopped a few seconds later, Nutman began to administer CPR.

Nutman said that it became clear "that there was something really wrong" with Ekperi shortly after Ekperi laid down on the gym floor. Nutman said that she began to administer medical help about a minute after Ekperi laid down.

According to Nutman, a basketball coach who was at the court called for medical help. A security guard brought over a defibrillator to try to revive Ekperi. Nutman, the guard, and another student continued to administer CPR.

When an ambulance arrived, the medical staff tried to revive Ekperi, giving her oxygen, CPR, as well as drugs, but they could not rescue her either, Jean Baptiste, who was working with Ekperi for the summer at the National Institute for Health, said.

The medical staff said that Ekperi had died before they arrived at the scene, according to Jean Baptiste.

Jean Baptiste said he spoke to a doctor who said that Ekperi likely died of an undiagnosed heart problem that was not detected during physical examinations. Nutman said that the medical cause of Ekperi’s death has not been confirmed.

"The doctor said that it’s rare but that it happens among young athletes," said Jean Baptiste, who is also a Crimson editor.

Ekperi was an athlete who played basketball all of her life, added Jean Baptiste, who said he and Ekperi had become close friends over the course of the summer.

"The only thing that brings me some type of comfort is that she was doing something she loved when she died," he said. "Even on her way to the court she was saying that basketball was something that was very important to her."

The Washington D.C. Coroner’s Office confirmed on Friday that Ekperi died yesterday, though they did not release the cause of death.

Friends remembered Ekperi, who lived in Greenough as a freshman and was going to live in Winthrop House next year, for her energy and her involvement in Harvard’s black community.

"Whenever I think of Cecilia I think of laughter and joy and happiness. She loved to talk and have a really good time," said Sarah Lockridge-Steckel ’09, who was also Ekperi’s blockmate.

"She always added so much to whatever we were doing, whether it was academics or a party or just goofing around," Lockridge-Steckel said. "She was very much the life of what we did."