"We click on all cylinders," she said.

The Lady Wolverines were clicking last Monday night, walloping Smithfield-Selma High School 83-25 in the first round of the 4-A N.C. High School Athletic Association Eastern Sectional Championship and improving their record this season to 26-0.

NCpreps.com, a high school sports site, ranks the Lady Wolverines No. 1 in the state among girls' 4-A high school basketball teams.

"We have so much talent," Coach Danielle Blackburn said.

Hanzer, 17, a 5-foot-10-inch senior guard, is the Cap 7 Conference Player of the Year.

She was 8 years old when she started playing basketball. She was on a boys' team because all of the girls' teams were full.

She got respect.

"I was taller than all of the boys, and I was the go-to girl on the team," she said.

Hanzer has come a long way since those days. She will enroll next fall at UNC-Wilmington on a full basketball scholarship.

Her mother, Elaine Hanzer, is principal at Wake Forest-Rolesville Middle School and a former coach. Blackburn played for her at Millbrook High School in the 1990s.

Hanzer wants to follow in their footsteps and lead a team someday.