IN their debut season playing in the Scottish Basketball Championship, the Ayr Storm Under-16 men reached the Division Three play-off final in Grangemouth and faced Falkirk Fury.

The Ayr side had a Won 11 and Lost 1 record in the regular season and a Won 3 and Lost 0 record in the end-of-season gold league.

However Falkirk had only lost to one team all season - the games with Ayr, so coaches Alan Nisbet and Danny Gibbons new their side would have a tough game in the SBC Division Three play-off final against a side who could draw on Scotland internationalists and pull players down from their SBC Division One team.

A slow start from the Ayr side saw them trailing by 10 in the first fiver minutes and an early time out was called to settle nerves.

This seemed to work as Lewis Dunbar went back on court to score two quick layups on the break. Hamish Ablett then score three free throws as each time he drove to the basket he was being fouled while shooting. Slowly the team cut into the lead and at the end of the opening period only trailed 19-13.

Period two was to be a challenging one as the side came across a form of defense they had not faced before, and were not expecting to see in this league.

The normal style of play was not working for Ayr and Falkirk extended their lead out to 17 points.

Paul Gibbons came on to score from outside the key for Ayr, but other than Ablett scoring from the line again, Storm struggled to get any points on the board and were left trailing 35-23 at half-time.

The coaching team reminded the squad they had come back from larger deficits in previous games and this seemed to spur the boys on, it was also helped when the refs called a Technical foul on the Falkirk coach for the defense he was using.

Period Three saw Ablett and Dunbar show the form that had taken Ayr to the final as they tore the Falkirk defense apart, helping to win the period 18-13 and reducing the deficit to seven.

David Mexson , Craig Murray and Calum Dryburgh all took shots of marking Fury's internationalist and keeping him quiet with strong blocking out and rebounding displays. Matthew Baines was starting to show his high tempo interception style the watching Ayr support were used to.

However the strong third period seemed to leave the Ayr side drained, as they could not repeat the form in Period Four and while they restricted Falkirk to a handful of chances, they could not create any good ones of their own as they again faced a style they had not expected.

The boys worked hard but could not find a way through and the game slipped away from them. Final Score in SBC DivisionThree Play Off Final: Ayr Storm 44 Falkirk Fury 63.

Coach Danny Gibbons said : "The coaches and everybody at the club are proud of the season the boys have had. Everyone was hurting with the loss in the final game but the 12 on the day and other five who have been part of this adventure need to look back at how the U16 men did not win a game last season in the local league, and here we are in the national league with a great win record and just short of winning a final. We will learn from this and build and grow as a team and a club."