Considering the high stakes, it was no surprise to see Olympiacos Piraeus and AS Monaco locked in a defensive battle in the early stages of their series decider at Peace and Friendship Stadium on Wednesday night.
Telling numbers: McKissic second-quarter heroics ignited the Reds
Neither team could get their offense moving in the opening quarter, which finished 11-13 after Olympiacos made just 3 of 12 field goal attempts and Monaco just 5 of 19. But that totally changed in an explosive second quarter which saw the teams combine for no less than 65 points.
With the firepower at their disposal, it was inevitable that Monaco would catch fire at some point, and so it proved as the visitors drained 35 points in the period by making 11 of their 15 field goal attempts.
On many occasions, that scoring blitz would have been enough to seize a game-changing advantage, but not this time…and that was all thanks to Shaquielle McKissic.
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The Olympiacos guard was simply sensational, making 9 shots in a row – 3 of 3 two-pointers, 2 of 2 three-pointers and 4 of 4 from the foul line – to register 16 points in just over 5 minutes of stunning action. Amazingly, that burst of scoring accounted for more than half of Olympiacos's total of 30 points for the second quarter.
There was, of course, still a long way to go, and McKissic's dynamic contribution was not even enough to give his team the lead – Monaco led 31-37 at half-time. But without the lightning impact of their number 77, it's quite probable that Olympiacos would have been down by 20 at the break, with no realistic hope of launching the second-half comeback that eventually led to a place in the Final Four.
Others finished the job, but McKissic made it possible.