LAUSANNE (Switzerland) - The crowds in Lausanne went home excited on Day 2 of the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2025 with host team Switzerland making history while Australia needed two overtimes to beat Cameroon and record champions United States joined Argentina and Canada with Americas teams defeating European teams.
Sweet Swiss celebrations
Hosts Switzerland gave their fans reason to celebrate with a hard-fought 80-76 victory for the country's first win on the global stage in the modern era.
In front of a crowd of 4,576 fans including Swiss basketball stars Clint Capela, Kyshawn George and Thabo Sefolosha sitting courtside, Dayan Nessah led the way with 23 points, Oliver Sassella had 19 points and Andrin Njock scored 15 points.
Switzerland's victory was the first on the global stage for a men's team since the country beat Ireland and Iraq at the 1948 Olympics. The only victory by the country in a FIBA world event since then was the Swiss women beating Cuba 17-5 at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 1953.
Switzerland are now 1-1 in Group C while the Dominicans fell to 0-2.
Australia survive Cameroon in double OT
Australia survived a real struggle and out-lasted Cameroon 101-96 in double overtime to move to 2-0. Roman Siulepa and Dash Daniels both scored 22 points for the winners.
Australia were down six points with 50 seconds left but managed to force the first extra session thanks to Alex Dickeson's three-pointer with 4 seconds to go. The Oceania powers came through in the second overtime to give Cameroon a 0-2 record.
"We started slow. It's a credit to the fellows that we could fight back. It's definitely a learning lesson that we will not start like that," Daniels said.
Cameroon's Franck Belbi scored 29 points and star center Amadou Seini tallied 15 points and tied a FIBA U19 World Cup record with 25 rebounds.
It was just the fourth FIBA U19 World Cup game to go to double-overtime. The last one came in 2019 with Greece beating Senegal 102-97 in a Classification 9-16 game.
USA show class
Coming into the tournament, Group D was considered the Group of Death. But eight-time champions USA showed their class by rolling past France 108-77 for a 2-0 mark.
USA pulled away in the first quarter but France stayed within striking distance until the fourth quarter, which went to USA 30-17. Mikel Brown hit 6 three-pointers for 24 points and Koa Peat added 17 points. Marc-Owen Fodzo Dada tallied 17 points for France, who dropped to 1-1.
Serbia reeling after second surprise loss
Serbia's problems went from bad to worse on Day 2 as they followed their upset loss to Mali with another defeat - this time to the hands of Argentina. The South Americans won 71-66 for their first victory of Group A while Serbia have fallen to 0-2.
Serbia never led and trailed by as many as 12 points midway through the second quarter. The game was tied 65-65 with 65 seconds to go when Argentina converted on their final three possessions for the win with Argentina legend Luis Scola in the building.
Tyler Kropp scored 23 points, Felipe Minzer added 14 points and Thiago Sucatzky chipped in 11 points and 9 assists for Argentina, who wasted a 16-point lead in their opening loss to New Zealand.
"It was a dogfight against those guys, 40 minutes of pure battle. Fortunately we were able to do it," said Minzer.
38-point swing in Canada comeback win
Canada put together a massive third quarter in rallying to beat Slovenia 82-63 for their second Group B win in as many games. Canada were down by 17 points in the second quarter but out-scored the Europeans 35-9 in the period, including a 28-2 run.
Jordan Charles tallied 27 points and Spencer Ahrens totalled 16 points in the victory, which dropped Slovenia to 0-2.
"In the first half we came out really slow and we picked it up in the second half. We pushed the pace and did what we do and that changed our energy," said Charles. "It says a lot about us because they have been playing a long time together."
Other results
- Germany took care of business with a comfortable 90-66 victory over China for a 2-0 mark in Group B. Eric Reibe scored 15 points to pace six Germans in double figures. China fell to 0-2.
- New Zealand improved to 2-0 in Group A after a strong second half in a 73-50 win over Mali. The Junior Tall Blacks allowed only 12 points in the final 20 minutes and Mali dropped to 1-1 after having surprised Serbia on opening day. Hayden Jones led the way with 19 points.
FIBA