AYR Storm's girls section has been growing steadily over the last five years.

The club now offer basketball not only to secondary school pupils and senior women, but to girls from primary schools throughout Ayrshire.

It was the Under-12 team's turn to shine in their recent West Region matches in Paisley.

In their first game against Glasgow City the Ayr girls got off to a quick start with Rebecca Wilcox and Neve Mills scoring first quarter baskets. Good defence from the girls and some fine team-work opened up a 12-2 lead at the half.

City were a new team after the break and brought the gap back to 12-10

However, a game-high eight points from Alix McIntosh and six points from Louise Fisher saw Storm finish the game as 22-12 winners.

Ayr's second game of the day saw the girls face Gladiator Rocks.

The game very much mirrored the first in that Storm jumped out to an early lead, in large part thanks to Lowri Hulme's five points, but failed to shake off their determined opponents. It was another five points from McIntosh and six from Fisher that helped the team to their second win by a scoreline of 18-10. The biggest cheer of the day was reserved for 8 year old Rachel Fisher who in the third quarter made her first ever basket for the U12 team.

The girls now look forward to the regional finals in May and June.

The club's Head of Coaching, Laura Nisbet, was thrilled with the squad's performance and said: "We had a few girls missing, but the team put in two solid performances both on offence and defence - the future's bright, and all their hard training is paying off."

Ayr Storm offer Primary school girls two trainings during the week - Mondays, from 6pm-7.300pm at Kyle Academy, and on Wednesdays, from 6pm - 7.45pm at UWS (University of West of Scotland). Contact the club on ayrstormbc@aol.com for more information - or message the club at www.facebook.com/ayrbasketballclub