A historic third quarter in which Olympiacos Piraeus turned around a 12-point halftime deficit to lead AS Monaco by 13 after 30 minutes turned the first semifinal at the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four on its head and sent the Reds to the championship game on Sunday in search of their fourth continental title against either FC Barcelona or Real Madrid.
Olympiacos scored the first 14 points after halftime, matching the second-biggest comeback ever in a semifinal or championship game, to go on and outscore Monaco 27-2 in the third quarter. That 25-point difference was the greatest in any quarter of a Final Four game ever.
As much as the Reds scoring just 2 fewer points than in all of the first half, it was the defense that starred. Thomas Walkup held Monaco top scorer Mike James, the author of 13 first-half points, to 0 points in the third quarter. The Reds also forced Monaco into 3 shot-clock violations.
"That defensive effort in the third quarter was really championshipesque," Walkup said. "It took guts to come out there, change the whole rhythm of the game. It was special to be a part of it, if I’m being honest. The energy and the effort and the buy-in to team basketball that was there in the third quarter was amazing."