By Yvonne Zacharias, Vancouver Sun -- Big grit in small package. Handsworth Royals point guard Diana Lee never met a gym she didn't like.

If you have a key to one somewhere, anywhere, you might want to keep it hidden. The 16-year-old Grade 11 gym rat will do her best to gain entry.

The diminutive 5-7 player looks like an elf who has stepped out of a storybook to demonstrate her spritely bounce on the basketball court. See kids, here is how it is done. You don't have to be big and mighty to outsmart the enemy.

This fledgling female version of a Steve Nash possesses a gritty determination that showed with her every move at the Capilano Sportsplex where the girls AAA provincial high school championships romped to a rollicking start Wednesday morning.

The Royals, ranked as the No. 1 team in the province, routed the Caledonia Kermodes from Terrace, 73-18.

Handsworth outshot, outscored and generally out-foxed their northern rivals.

You had to hand it to the Kermodes though. A less tenacious team would have given up. The Kermodes hung in there, giving it their all to the final whistle.

With renegade curls escaping from her tightly braided hair, Lee plied the court, scoring 19 points with eight assists and seven steals in limited playing time. Handsworth coach Scott Palmer mercifully rested his big guns in the second half as the Royals surged ahead of the Kermodes.

Although she is one of the youngest and smallest members of the team, Lee averages nearly 20 points a game.

"I just figure that since I am not as tall or as strong, I need to make it up with skill and quickness," she said. "I just practise a little harder. I know I have to work a lot harder to compensate for it."

Lee was named most valuable player at this year's Lower Mainland AAA senior girls basketball championships and was the most valuable player on the winning side at the Wednesday match.

Lee, who first started playing senior ball at Handswoth in Grade 9, is considered one of the top five female high school basketball players in the province.

Palmer says she is arguably B.C.'s best point guard.

"One of the really key pieces for the point guard is not to turn the ball over," said Palmer.

"Diana just doesn't turn the ball over. She doesn't make very many mental mistakes. Her ball management is extraordinary."

Another key ingredient in the making of a good point guard is the ability to see the court. Lee sees it very well.

"She knows where her other four teammates are and her assist-to-turnover ratio is 3.5-to-one which is extraordinary," said Palmer. "It's up there with Steve Nash."

Lee said she loves the game because there is always something to work on. You can never be perfect. With a basketball-playing father and a mother who was into track, she has the right pedigree.

Like most teenage girls, she has nothing against makeup and partying. "Yeah, I enjoy those things but it's not a big part of my life. I have a lot of goals. I try to stay focused on basketball because it is my dream."

She has big hoop dreams, with one eye on the Canadian national team and another on an athletic scholarship after graduation.

"She never lets up trying to get better," said Palmer. "That's all you can ask of a player."

- Other highlights from Wednesday's game: Handsworth Grade 12 forward Bethan Chalke scored 16 points while Grade 11 guard/forward Kris Young added eight points and four assists.

View Vancouver Sun article here.