MIES (Switzerland) - Week 4 provided us with an important milestone in the Play-Offs race as the very first ticket to the Final 8 found its rightful owner, in Nizhny Novgorod.

This week's standout performances include of course a player of the Russian side as well as two players whose teams took giant steps towards May's showcase tournament and two players who helped their respective teams tick the win column and stay alive in the race.

Kasey Shepherd of Nizhny Novgorod, C.J. Harris of Hapoel Unet-Credit Holon, Michele Vitali of Brose Bamberg, Bonzie Colson of SIG Strasbourg and Giorgi Shermadini of Lenovo Tenerife are the standout performers of Week 3 in the 2020-21 BCL Play-Offs. Here's a closer look at their exploits in this week's games:

A double dose of Shepherd brilliance

Kasey Shepherd's Tuesday statline was so brilliant that he could have literally taken Thursday off and still land within the top performers of the week but, with Nizhny Novgorod playing twice this week, the 26-year-old point guard chose to treat us to a double dose of stellar play.

On Tuesday, Nizhny defeated Turk Telekom 96-82 as Shepherd came off the bench midway through the first quarter and poured in a BCL career-high 32 points on an almost flawless 8 of 9 from beyond the three-point arc, also adding 5 assists, 2 rebounds and 1 steal for an efficiency rating of 32.

Two days later, against AEK, he scored 17 points on 3 of 5 from downtown, dished a BCL career-high 8 assists and added 5 boards and 2 steals to pace Nizhny to an 88-60 victory over the Greek side that secured the Russian side a place in the Final 8.

Harris fuels Holon comeback

There are many things that need to go right so that a team can climbs its way back from a 16-point deficit and win the game by single point six tenths of a second from the final buzzer but, as Hapoel Unet-Credit Holon reminded us on Tuesday, it all starts with the first step.

C.J. Harris provided that crucial initial spark when he scored 12 of his 21 points in the third quarter for Holon to reduce the gap to seven points going into the final stanza, when they had trailed Pinar Karsiyaka 40-24 shortly before halftime.

The Israeli team went on to prevail 77-76 in Izmir on a Tyrus McGee free-throw at the death and take a big step towards the Final 8, as Harris finished with 21 points on 4 of 8 three-point shooting, and added 3 assists.

Vitali, Bamberg make it rain

Brose Bamberg broke a host of records on Tuesday and finally snapped their losing streak in the Play-Offs with a 117-76 rout of Casademont Zaragoza, so the career night of Michele Vitali came against the perfect backdrop.

The 29-year-old Italian guard scored a BCL career-high 23 points (his previous personal best was 20, on multiple occasions) as he went a perfect 8-for-8 from the floor, including drilling all 6 of his three-point attempts, and added 4 steals, 1 rebound and 1 steal for an efficiency rating of 27.

Vitali led six Bamberg players in double digits with the German team setting a new record for most made triples in a single BCL game with their 21 three-pointers (amazingly, they only needed 40 attempts) as well as establishing a new record for the highest offensive output in a Play-Offs game.

Colson returns, Strasbourg live to fight another day

A week previously, SIG Strasbourg traveled to Athens without Bonzie Colson and fell to a shorthanded AEK. This week, Colson returned to the Strasbourg lineup having recovered from his injury and the French team rolled over the Greeks 91-73 at home, to stave off elimination from the race to reach the Final 8.

The reversal in Strasbourg's fortunes was certainly not entirely thanks to Colson, but his mere presence was of paramount importance to the French on Tuesday and he will be crucial in their effort to win both of their final two games and qualify.

Against AEK, the 25-year-old forward finished with a near double-double of 18 points and 9 rebounds and also added 1 steal and 1 block for an efficiency rating of 18

Shermadini déjà vu 

No, you're not having a déjà vu and you're not re-reading the Week 3 standout performances either, it's just that Giorgi Shermadini was in this exact same spot also last week - yes, he's that good.

Just like he had done in Week 3 action against VEF Riga, the Lenovo Tenerife big man didn't spend a whole lot of time on the floor when his team took on Igokea on Tuesday. In fact he featured for only 20 minutes and 10 seconds, down from 23 minutes and 11 seconds the previous week.

It didn't really matter though, because Shermadini is efficiency personified and he led Tenerife to an 80-75 win . He collected 21 points (more than a point per minute for the second week in a row) on 9 of 9 free-throws and 6 of 8 shooting from the floor, also adding 3 rebounds and 2 blocks. The Georgian international is now the second-leading free-throw shooter among players in the Play-Offs, averaging 93.6 percent from the stripe.