Tuesday and Wednesday all four area public school varsity basketball teams play region tournament games with state playoff berths riding on the line.

After that, Griffin Christian opens state tournament play Thursday in the GISA Class AAA playoffs at Stratford Academy in Macon against The Weber School.

The fun begins with:

n GRIFFIN HIGH LADY BEARS (14-8) play 4 p.m., today at Woodland High School in Stockbridge against McIntosh (23-3).

Both teams are tied for No. 9 in the Class AAAA state rankings, so something has to give when they square off tonight.

The teams haven’t met in the regular season. The June Barrow-coached Lady Bears head into the game looking for their first state playoff berth since 2001, nine seasons ago.

A note of interest is four teams in the Region 3-AAAA tournament are state ranked, including both teams mentioned above as well as No. 7 Alcovy (22-2) and No. 6 Fayette County (20-5).

n SPALDING HIGH LADY JAGS (7-17) play 7 p.m., today at Drew High School in Riverdale against Eastside-Covington (20-4).

Spalding heads into the game seven seeded, while Easide is a two-seeded.

Eastside swept the regular season series, topping the Lady Jags 65-30 on Jan. 7 and 64-49 on Feb. 8.

Nonetheless, if the Demetrius King-coached Lady Jags can pull off the upset they will qualify for state for a school-record third year in a row.

The team to watch in the tournament is No. 7-state ranked Sandy Creek (20-3).

n SPALDING HIGH JAGUARS (15-10) play 4 p.m., Wednesday at Drew High School in Riverdale against the ost team (12-8).

Spalding heads into the game seeded fourth, while Drew is seeded fifth.

The two teams split in the regular season, Spalding beating Drew 71-66 in overtime on Dec. 10 and Drew returning the favor 70-55 on Jan. 21.

The big question here for the Cecil Spear-coached Jaguars is how healthy will SHS point guard Davin White be.

White, the team’s leading scorer, went down hard in a game Feb. 4 and injured his surgically-repaired knee and has been kept out since in an effort to rehabilitate.

The Jags are looking to make it three trips in a row to state — not bad for an 11-year-old program that had never qualified for state prior to that point.

The favorites in this tournament include No. 10-state ranked Eagles Landing (20-4) as well as No. 6-state ranked Henry County (20-4).

n GRIFFIN HIGH BEARS (10-9) play 7 p.m., Wednesday at Woodland High School in Stockbridge against No. 3-state ranked Fayette County (23-2).

The two teams met once early in the season, Fayette County prevailing 78-34 on Dec. 17.

But a lot has changed since then for the Justin Roger-coached Bears, who gained the services of two NCAA Division I football signees and another key starter.

After a 1-6 start — which included losing their first five games — the Bears have gone 9-3 down the stretch, including winning their last five in a row.

The Bears head into Wednesday’s game looking to garner their first state playoff berth since the late Ferris Qualls coached the team in the 2006-2007 season.

While Fayette is the team to watch in this tournament, another favorite is No. 10-state ranked Alcovy (18-6).

n GRIFFIN CHRISTIAN CRUSADERS (19-7) play 5:30 p.m., Thursday at Stratford Academy in Macon against The Weber School (12-8).

The Mic Savaged-coached Griffin Christian boys squad heads into the game looking to notch their first state playoff win ever.

The winner of the GISA Class AAA opening-round state playoff game advances to a second-round game against the winner of Southland (13-10) and No. 3-state ranked Bethesda (18-7) on Saturday in the four-round tournament.