Teen cancer survivor makes game-winning ‘miracle shot’

Last Friday, Spencer Wilson, 17, hit a buzzer-beating half-court shot, winning the game for his high school basketball team.

"Right when the ball went in, I just thought it was a dream," Spencer, a junior at Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School in Kernersville, North Carolina, said of the 50-foot "miracle shot."

The team was down by one point. The ball went in with only 2.2 seconds left on the clock.

"I was like, this can't be real."

What makes Spencer's shot most remarkable is the story behind the player.

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In the past five years, Spencer has battled cancer — twice.

Wilson was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of tissue cancer, when he was 13 years old. After surgery to remove a malignant tumour in his leg, and 15 rounds of chemotherapy, he went into remission.

Six months later, doctors discovered that tumours had spread to Spencer's groin and lymph nodes. His weight dropped to 86 pounds. Without treatment, he had just six months to live. With treatment, he had only a 7 per cent chance of survival.

"Doctors said you have a 7 per cent chance to beat this," Spencer told WFMY News. "That was the toughest news I've ever heard."

"That was very, very hard, to say the least," Spencer's mother, Jodie Wilson, told Yahoo! Shine. "You want to make everything right for your kids. There's nothing worse than seeing your child suffer."

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"He and I had that conversation (about mortality) after we learned that it had come back," Spencer's father, Billy Wilson, said in November. "He had to become a man so much earlier than we wanted him to."

Even during his gruelling cancer treatments, Spencer would play basketball every Saturday morning.

"That was his place of peace," Jodie said.

Spencer credits his survival, in part, to his friendship with Josh Rominger, another cancer patient. Rominger died last year.

Before Friday's game, Spencer's basketball coach Josh Thompson asked each player to write the name of someone inspirational on a basketball.

Spencer wrote "Josh Rominger."

"He could relate to Josh so much," Jodie said, adding, "And Josh loved basketball."

When Spencer made the incredible shot last week, it was a play dedicated to the names on that ball.

"I don't know that the Lord cares about who wins a basketball game but I know he cares about his people and I believe the Lord has Spencer here for a reason," said Thompson.

Spencer's next goal: to play basketball in college.