Furphy stars as Emus beat France

Tasmanian Jacob Furphy was the star of the show with 19 points and five threes as the Australian Emus put in a second straight strong showing at the Under-19 FIBA World Cup beating France 71-63.

The Emus started the U19 World Cup in Switzerland with the 15-point loss to the USA back on Saturday night before bouncing back in an overtime classic to beat Cameroon by five points on Sunday.

It was back to Cooly Arena in Lausanne for the Emus on Tuesday night to wrap up the group phase against a French team who beat Cameroon first up by 25 points before a 31-point defeat at the hands of the USA.

That set up the Tuesday night contest nicely with Australia starting strongly leading 19-15 by quarter-time with Furphy scoring eight of those points including hitting a couple of three balls.

The Emus then held France scoreless through the first four minutes of the second period and by half-time were in control leading 35-25.

Australia built on that lead to be up 13 at three quarter-time after the Emus had led by as much as 17, but the French kept on coming and had it back to a five-point game when Timeo Pons hit a three ball with just over a minute to play.

With 45 seconds to go, France got it back to four but Dash Daniels hit two clutch free throws for Australia and from there they secured the eight-point win after a breakaway in transition to Melbourne United Next Star Daniels.

Jacob Furphy is about to start his college career with the University of Connecticut and showed what a rising star they are getting with 19 points and five assists on 5/9 three-point shooting.

Roman Siulepa added another 19 points, eight rebounds and two blocks in a powerful performance with Luke Fennell adding 13 points, Jack Whitbourn eight points and seven rebounds, and Dash Daniels' four points came to seal the win to go with his seven assists and six boards.

Talis Soulhac top-scored for France with 12 points and six assists with Mohamed Sankhe adding 10 points, Timeo Pons nine and Leon Sifferlin nine.

The Round of 16 matches will all take place in Lausanne on Wednesday as well.

FIBA UNDER-19 WORLD CUP – GAME DAY 3

AUSTRALIAN EMUS 71 (Furphy 19, Siulepa 19, Fennell 13)

FRANCE 63 (Soulhac 12, Sankhe 10, Sifferlin 9, Pons 9)

BOX SCORE