Tyquone Greer hero for Chicago's Orr
— -- Tyquone Greer hit the biggest shot of the season Tuesday night for Orr Academy High School of Chicago.
It also was the most improbable.
Less than two weeks after he was shot in the leg while attending a neighborhood get-together, Greer came off the bench and buried a wide-open 3-pointer with three seconds remaining to give Orr a 71-68 triumph against North Chicago in the Class 3A Hoffman Estates Supersectional.
Unbelievable? Don't tell that to Greer.
"This could have been our last game and I wanted to make my presence felt," the 6-foot-7 senior standout told reporters, according to 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."
Added Orr coach Louis Adams to ESPNChicago.com on Wednesday: "It wasn't Tyquone. 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."
Greer was one of six people shot in the early morning hours of March 9 on Chicago's West Side, according to the Tribune. He was hospitalized with a calf wound before being discharged that afternoon, the newspaper reported.
Two days later, Greer watched from the sideline as Orr won its sectional semifinal. In the next round, he played just one minute in another victory that propelled Orr into Tuesday night's clash with North Chicago.
Greer played sparingly -- the final two minutes of the first half, then in stretches after that -- before entering the game with the score tied at 65 and 1:18 remaining. A little more than a minute later and the game still tied, this time at 68, Greer found himself alone in the corner and proceeded to drain the game-winning 3.
It was his only field goal attempt of the game.
"He can't really walk," Adams told ESPNChicago.com. "He's just hobbling around. He's out there making plays. I was reluctant to play him. I didn't want to play him, but he kept bugging me and bugging me. The game got tight, and he said he could help us. He played for me for four years. I thought I owed him it."
Added Greer: "We've been through a lot together over four years. If it was going to be somebody's fault, I would rather it have been mine. That's why I kept telling him to put me in the game."
Next up for Greer and his Orr teammates: a second straight appearance in the state tournament.
Information from ESPNChicago.com's Scott Powers was used in this report.
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