Less than two weeks after being shot in the calf, Chicago senior Tyquone Greer sent his high school basketball team to the state finals tournament on Tuesday evening.
With three seconds remaining in the Class 3A Hoffman Estates Supersectional, Greer buried a three-pointer to give Orr Academy High School of Chicago a 71-68 victory over North Chicago High School.
“This could have been our last game and I wanted to make my presence felt,” Greer told reporters after the game, per the Chicago Tribune. “For me to take that shot, God planned it for me because he has some better stuff for me. I knew I was going to make it. I was very confident.
“My leg was still kind of shaky, but this could have been our last game so I wanted to be out there. If we lost, I wanted to make sure that I was on the court with my team. That’s all that really mattered.”
The 6'7" forward was one of six people shot outside a West Side party on March 9, per the Tribune. He sat out the team’s sectional semifinal two days after being shot, and only played about 30 seconds in the sectional final against Fenwick High School.
On Tuesday, he made his impact felt in his limited time. The game-winning three-pointer was his only field-goal attempt.
“It wasn’t Tyquone,” Orr coach Louis Adams told ESPNChicago.com on Wednesday. “It was all God’s work. I told him, ‘You shot it, but God made it.’ By the grace of God he’s still living. [The gunshot] could have been worse than it was. It [the 3-pointer] was God’s will.”
On Friday at 2 p.m. CT, Orr will take on Morgan Park High School for a chance to play in the state title game the next day.