LAUSANNE, Switzerland – The UConn men’s basketball incoming freshman duo of Jacob Furphy and Eric Reibe concluded their runs at the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup Switzerland 2025 last week in Lausanne. Reibe helped lead Germany to a silver medal and a 6-1 record, while Furphy led the competition in minutes for an Australia side that went 4-3 and finished in sixth place.
Both Huskies were among the top-20 scorers in the World Cup and played integral roles for their national teams. Reibe averaged 15.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game for Germany in 23.7 minutes per game and finished fourth in the tournament with a 58.7 field goal percentage. He scored in double-figures in all but one game and had a pair of 20-point performances.
After a 2-0 start to group play with wins over Slovenia and China, Reibe had a huge game against Canada to clinch a perfect Group B run. He scored 20 points with seven rebounds, two steals a block in 24 minutes to earn a top seed in the Round of 16. In the first game of the knockout stage, Reibe had his best performance of the event with 25 points on 10-12 shooting, adding eight rebounds and two blocks in 31 minutes in a win over Serbia.
Germany and Australia matched up in the quarterfinals, a win for Germany in which Reibe scored 12 points and went 6-of-8 from the floor along with two blocks in 22 minutes. In a semifinal win over Slovenia the 7’0 big man posted 13 points and snared five rebounds with three assists and two steals. In the gold medal game against the heavily favored United States, Reibe scored 17 points in 24 minutes.
Furphy finished his latest run with the Australia national team by ranking 12th in the World Cup with 16.7 points per game and leading all players in Lausanne by logging 34.4 minutes per game. He scored in double-figures in six of seven outings and added 4.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.1 steals per game.
The ‘Emus’ opened Group D play against Team USA and Furphy made an early impression with 24 points on 9-18 shooting, four rebounds and two steals. He followed that with a huge outing in a double-overtime thriller against Cameroon, helping Australia come back from multiple late deficits and scoring 18 points with three rebounds, four assists and two steals in 46 minutes – the most logged by any player in any contest at the World Cup.
In a battle for the second-place finish in Group D, Furphy scored 19 points and dished out five assists as Australia topped France. The 6-4 guard was 5-of-9 from 3-point range in the group play finale. He opened the knockout stage with 24 points on 9-15 shooting to lead the Emus past the Dominican Republic, hitting 5-of-7 from the downtown. In the setback against Reibe and Germany in the quarterfinals, Furphy scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
In consolation bracket games against Israel and Canada, Furphy averaged 9.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 steals and Australia earned a sixth-place finish. He was Australia’s second-leading scorer at the World Cup and led the squad in steals and 3-pointers made in Switzerland.
Both Furphy and Reibe will return to Storrs for the Summer II session ahead of their freshman campaigns at UConn.