Tyquone Greer has had a topsy-turvy couple of weeks. Just 10 days ago, on March 9, Greer was at a party in Chicago’s west side when he was one of six people shot. The bullet struck him the calf, but he was discharged from Stroger Hospital the same day.
It was initially believed that the 6’7″ senior’s season would be over, a major loss to the Orr Spartan team hoping to compete for an Illinois state title. In the playoff battle against Fenwick on Friday night, Greer was on the court for a single minute of game action, and the team managed to win and move on to the supersectional.
Greer got a little more action last night, but Orr’s coach Louis Adams used Greer only sparingly throughout the game against North Chicago. Most importantly, though, is that when the game was all tied up at 68-68 with less than a minute left, Adams had his senior forward on the court.
The play seemed to be going nowhere, but Greer was given too much space on a cut to the corner and let loose a catch-and-shoot three with only three seconds left on the game clock.
“For me to take that shot, God planned it 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.”
It was an incredible end to the game, sending the Spartans to the state championship for the second year in a row. For Greer, shot just nine days earlier, it really couldn’t get any sweeter than this.
