Six days after winning region championships, the girls basketball teams of Creekview and Woodstock will reap those rewards Friday by hosting first-round state playoff games.

Woodstock (20-8) will take on West Forsyth (8-20) at 6 p.m., while Creekview (25-3) will host Clarke Central (12-15) at 7 p.m.

While winning a region championship may earn a team the right to host another region’s No. 4 seed and prevent a long bus ride to play, the advantages end there.

“Clarke Central doesn’t care if we are region champs or not,” Creekview coach Roger Nolan said. “They are pretty talented.”

In addition, this week may not be the best week to host a state tournament game. With Cherokee County schools out of session, there’s some concern about the turnout at Creekview and Woodstock. Woodstock coach Julie Crowe said her team is making an effort to reach out to the community to bring in as much support as possible.

Nolan said he wanted to focus his attention simply on getting his team to the second round of the playoffs.

“As far as fans being there, I don’t care if there is one fan out there,” he said. “I want people to show up, but I just want our kids to be victorious and go on to the next step.

“It definitely helps playing at home. I wouldn’t want to be traveling to Clarke. I’d much rather be here. … The bottom line is that you have to make plays wherever you play.”

In the Lady Grizzlies’ matchup, Clarke Central has a size advantage that could cause problems for Creekview. However, the Lady Gladiators aren’t a deep team, according to Nolan, and the Lady Grizzlies will play a high-pressure, high-tempo style of game in an effort to force the team to run for all 32 minutes and wear down Clarke Central’s taller players.

“We’ve got to make them run the floor,” he said. “At some point, we are going to try and make them play man-to-man against us. We struggled against the zone in the past. In the region tournament, we did better against it.

“At some point, we want to try and make them be more mobile and not just sit and protect the basket. ... They’ve had some injuries over the season. We have a little advantage there. As a team, we are faster. Even if we are not faster, we are going to try and get up and down the floor to wear them out a little bit.”

For Woodstock, West Forsyth will be a significant step down from its first-round fate last year, a trip to North Gwinnett.

Though West Forsyth lost games to Cherokee and Etowah this season — two teams Woodstock dominated — Crowe has made it clear to her players that any letting up at all could spell doom.

“Obviously, you have to respect every opponent,” Crowe said. “That’s what I talked about in the locker room. We’re at home, and they’ll be moving on if we lose the game. I think they realize the importance of this game and of putting four quarters in.”

For Cherokee and River Ridge, the challenge will be traveling to higher-seeded opponents and trying to survive and advance.

After losing two straight games in the Region 5AAAAA tournament, Cherokee (18-10) will be forced to play at Region 6AAAAA champion Alpharetta (23-3) at 7 p.m. The Lady Raiders have a team filled with some of the top talent in Georgia, including junior Kylee Smith, a Vanderbilt commitment who averages 19 points per game.

“They’ve got some really, really good players over there,” Cherokee coach Matt Cates said. “They’ve got three or four kids that are committed or signed to colleges. You can tell that they are good. They’ve got a real good guard (Smith) and a couple of real good posts. They do a real good job of using their length offensively and defensively.”

After losing to Wheeler and Woodstock in the region tournament, the Lady Warriors must find a way to bounce back in order to beat one of the top teams in Class AAAAA.

“We’re just going to have to get back to basics and approach this game as a chance to get back on the winning side,” Cates said. “We’re very fortunate that we are in the state tournament. We feel honored that we are in the state tournament, and just like all of the other 31 teams, we’re trying to advance.”

After earning the No. 3 seed from Region 7AA, River Ridge (21-9) will travel to 8AA runner-up North Oconee (24-3) for a 7 p.m. tip.

Even though the Lady Knights will have to match up against a state-ranked team in the first round, it’s still a far cry — in both travel and talent level — from their first-round matchup last year. They had to play top-ranked Kendrick in Columbus last year.

As a result of playing in a region that requires plenty of travel throughout the schedule, River Ridge will be well-prepared for its long journey Friday.

“We’re seasoned when it comes to traveling on the road,” River Ridge coach Jason Taylor said. “Every game is usually an hour or an hour-and-a-half to get to. This is a little bit further, but nothing we can’t handle.

“We’re not traveling to the No. 1 team in the state and playing a team hasn’t lost a single game. The odds on this one are a little more in our favor. We have a chance to compete. We know it’s going to be tough. We have the opportunity, whereas last year, there was less opportunity. … This year, the ball is in our court so to speak. If we want to get a win, then we can get a win. We just have to show up and play.”

Taylor believes River Ridge and North Oconee have a great deal in common. On paper, the Lady Titans don’t have any star players that can take over a game on their own. Instead, according to Taylor, they run a disciplined outfit that runs its set with great precision.