WARSAW – There will be a lot of talk about streaks come Friday night in the Tiger Den.

The Warsaw boys basketball team just wants to be talking about one streak following the league opener with county rival Wawasee.

A one-game winning streak.

The Tigers will look to snap a three-game losing skid when Northern Lakes Conference play tips-off. Warsaw sits at 2-3 following losses at home to Homestead and Huntington North and a setback at Lake Central last Friday night. Those three teams are currently a combined 10-5.

Warsaw boasts an impressive streak in NLC play, while the Warriors still carry a dubious one. The Tigers have won 21 straight league games, becoming the first program in NLC history to go 7-0 for three straight seasons. Wawasee has dropped 42 in a row in NLC action, going 0-7 each of the past six seasons.

Warsaw coach Doug Ogle also has another streak that is in play Friday night. The Tigers have beaten the Warriors 10 straight times. The last Wawasee win came during the 2006-07 season, a 46-30 victory in Syracuse under coach Phil Mishler.

“I think that the NLC is wide open this year,” said Ogle, who is now 238-114 in his 16th season in charge of the Tigers. “I think that there are a handful of teams with a legitimate chance to win the conference this year. It’s balanced. I think that it’s going to be tough for any team to win all their conference games this season. I could see the champion having a couple of losses.”

The Tigers have not lost an NLC game since a 38-31 home loss to Plymouth in the final league contest of the 2013-14 campaign. The last Wawasee win in the league was a 73-51 decision over Northridge in 2010-11. The Warriors finished 17-6 overall and 4-3 in the NLC that season under Mishler.

Warsaw has been plagued by poor shooting in its recent losing streak. The Tigers have shot just 45-132 overall from the field in the three losses. The 3-point shot has not been kind as Warsaw is 12-55 from distance in its last three contests.

“We’ve missed a lot of good shots, but we are also shooting too many threes,” noted Ogle. “It’s really too early to judge our shooting. I just think that we need a good shooting game to get our confidence up and I think that we will get that.”

Ogle says that his team needs to do some work on the defensive end too. The Tigers are allowing 49 points-per-game thus far this winter.

“I thought that we would be a better defensive team than we have been so far,” Ogle remarked. “I just think that we need to play with more effort. It’s an attitude, a mindset. We just need to be more focused and into playing defense.”

The Tigers altered their lineup in the loss at Lake Central as Jack Rhoades and Brian Elliott both got starting nods. Warsaw is without guard Landen Ferber, who opted to leave the team 10 days ago.

Warsaw has won 34 of the last 41 meetings with Wawasee, including a 56-25 win last season in Syracuse.

Warsaw won the NLC title a year ago at 7-0 with NorthWood and Elkhart Memorial each finishing 5-2. Northridge was 4-3 with Concord 3-4, Goshen 2-5, Plymouth 2-5 and Wawasee 0-7.

Wawasee sits at 1-3 overall after a tough 44-43 overtime loss at Whitko last Saturday night. Jacob Hand led the Warriors with 20 points in that contest.

NorthWood opens NLC play at home Friday night by hosting Plymouth (5-1). The Panthers snapped a two-game losing skid by dominating Jimtown 56-25 at home Tuesday night to improve to 4-2. NorthWood senior Caleb Glick injured his knee in the first quarter Tuesday night and his status for Friday night is unknown.

NorthWood outlasted Plymouth 66-62 in double overtime last season.

The Plymouth at NorthWood game will be the Channel 46 Game of the Week. The contest will be shown Friday night at 11 p.m. and again on Saturday at 9 a.m.

The rest of the NLC slate of openers has Concord (1-3) at Elkhart Memorial (3-1) Friday night and Northridge (2-2) at Goshen (2-3) on Saturday night.