With the regular season complete, all four area public school basketball teams now set their sights on the Region 4-AAAA tournament which begins with the rat-tail games Saturday at Dutchtown High School in Hampton and continues with consolation-round games Monday at the same venue before switching over to Woodland-Stockbridge High School for the state qualifying, semifinal and final-round games Tuesday through Saturday.

No local team has a tougher road than the Spalding High girls team (11-12), which lost four of its last five games, to finish last in Region 4-AAAA Div. B. That means the Lady Jags now have to take on Region 4-AAAA Div. A last-place Stockbridge (2-19) in a rat-tail game 6 p.m., Saturday at Dutchtown.

It’s merely the first of three games the Lady Jags will have to win to qualify for state.

From there the Lady Jags have to defeat Region 4-AAAA Div. B fourth-place North Clayton (11-14) in an elimination-round game 4 p.m., Monday at Dutchtown, if they win Saturday, before they could advance to a state-qualifying round game 8:30 p.m., Tuesday against Region 4-AAAA Div. A first-place Woodland-Stockbridge (24-1) at Woodland.

The Griffin High girls team (12-13), meanwhile, did themselves a favor by finishing third in the Region 4-AAAA Div. B standings. They will take on Region 4-AAAA Div. A second-place Dutchtown (17-6) 5:30 p.m., Tuesday in a state-qualifying round game.

In the boy’s tournament, both Region 4-AAAA Div. B fourth-place Spalding (11-10) and fifth-place Griffin (12-12) play elimination-round games Monday at Dutchtown — Spalding 5:30 p.m., against the winner of Saturday’s rat-tail game between Region 4-AAAA Div. B last-place Upson-Lee (10-13) and Region 4-AAAA Div. A last-place Locust Grove (3-20), and Griffin 8:30 p.m., against Region 4-AAAA Div. A fourth-place Woodland-Stockbridge (6-19).

Should both local boys teams advance Monday, they will play state-qualifying round games Wednesday at Woodland-Stockbridge — Spalding 5:30 p.m., against Region 4-AAAA Div. A first-place Eagle’s Landing (20-5) and Griffin against Region 4-AAAA Div. B first-place Jonesboro (20-4).

Not an easy task in either case.

Going into the region tournament meeting Wednesday at Eagle’s Landing, first-year SHS Kemo Spear, didn’t mind which bracket his team ended up in.

“Either way, you have to pick your poison,” he said, Thursday. “But to be the best, you have to beat the best.”