SLU recruit Cody Ellis scored 14 points and had 10 rebounds as Australia beat France 79-73 in the quarterfinals of the world under-19 championships in New Zealand. Ellis was 2 of 8 on field goals but 2 for 2 on 3-point tries. SLU’s other Aussie recruit, Christian Salecich, had no points and four rebounds in 25 minutes of action. Here’s a link to the boxscore and game story. Just click on the little tabs. And there are highlights of the game here, in the box on the right, where you can see Ellis hit a very long 3. Judging from the highlights, just about every basket in the game was a 3-pointer.

Australia faces Greece in the semifinals in the wee hours of Saturday morning. With a win, they could be facing the United States in the championship early Sunday.

The Sydney Morning Herald hasn’t made a mention I can find of the Emus. Here’s a story from the Auckland paper advancing the quarterfinals.  I haven’t seen any coverage of the Australia-France game yet.