Emus fall short of Germany in quarter-final

The medal chances of the Australian Emus at the Under-19 FIBA World Cup are over but not before they delivered spirited fightback only for Germany to again pull away to prevail 80-67.

The Emus did find themselves down by as much as 23 points early in the second half but they did show tremendous fight to get back within four points early in the fourth term thanks to Jacob Furphy in the quarter-final match up.

However, Germany never let the Australians get any closer and advance to the semi finals thanks to the 13-point quarter-final victory at Lausanne Arena in Switzerland.

The Emus lost their first game in the group phase to the USA before then winning in double overtime against Cameroon ahead of impressive wins against France and Dominican Republic to set up the quarter-final against Germany.

Despite Roman Siulepa scoring first for the Emus, Germany soon took charge to open up a 16-4 advantage before being on top 28-14 by quarter-time, and then out to a 52-33 lead at the half thanks to a Jordan Muller buzzer beater.

The German lead was a game-high 23 points two minutes into the second half thanks to a dunk from Hannes Steinbach, but then the Emus worked their way back into the contest.

Jacob Furphy got Australia within seven by three quarter-time and then when he hit a three ball in the opening minute of the fourth frame, it was a four-point ball game and the Emus had all the momentum.

They couldn’t get any closer than that, though, and Germany had the answers the rest of the way to end up winning by 13 and advancing to the semi finals.

Luke Fennell produced his best performance of the U19 World Cup with 18 points with 4/6 three-point shooting while Roman Siulepa continued to impress with 17 points and seven rebounds.

Jacob Furphy had another 13 points and eight rebounds, and Melbourne United Next Star Dash Daniels seven points and five rebounds despite being limited to 15 minutes with foul trouble.

Christian Anderson finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists for Germany with Hannes Steinbach adding 16 points and 16 rebounds, and Declan Duru and Eric Reibe 12 points each.

The Emus will now move into playing classification games over the weekend to attempt to finish the U19 World Cup as highly ranked as possible.

FIBA UNDER-19 WORLD CUP – QUARTER FINALS

AUSTRALIAN EMUS 67 (Fennell 18, Siulepa 17, Furphy 13)

GERMANY 80 (Anderson 18, Steinbach 16, Reibe 12, Duru 12)

BOX SCORE

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