WILSON — When the buzzer sounded, the Wilson Lakemen had gotten the Akron-sized monkey off their backs.
They had taken down their rival for the first time in 1,446 days. When they were going through the handshake line, Wilson’s Aidan Neumann reminded Akron head coach Justin Gerstung of that fact.
Neumann’s message to his AAU coach after his team’s 65-58 win on Wednesday was only three words: “We got one.”
“It means that all of the hard work in the off-season is really paying off,” Neumann said. “We are more hungry than ever to get more wins.”
The Lakemen ended their seven-game losing streak to the Tigers and strengthened their spot atop the Niagara-Orleans standings. The Lakemen got their first win over the Tigers since Feb. 5, 2022.
The win improves Wilson’s overall record to 13-0 and 6-0 in league play, giving them a two-game lead in the standings ahead of the Tigers.
“We felt that for a while. We feel like every team’s going to bring their best against us,” Wilson head coach Brett Sippel said. “We did win the sectional championship last year. So we already felt coming into the season Akron was the best team in the league, but we felt that year we were going to be hunted all season, for sure.”
Last year, Akron won the Niagara-Orleans league with a 19-1 overall record and an 11-1 record in league play. Wilson finished in third in the regular season standings with a 14-6 overall record and an 8-4 record in league play.
The teams played three times last year, with the trilogy-concluding game being the most important. The Tigers and the Lakemen met up in the Section VI Class B crossover game with the Tigers getting a 56-28 win. In the three games, Akron outscored the Lakemen 165-103.
That set the stage for this clash of rivals that are separated by 33 miles.
This game might have tipped off at 6:30 p.m. at the Richard J. Zipp Athletic Center, but the work for Wilson started the moment their season came to an end at the hands of Akron, 56-28, on March 11, 2025.
They knew that they did not want to get swept by Akron again. They wanted to end the losing streak and try to put themselves in a good position to win another league title.
“When we got our doors blown off at Buff State, it kind of lit a fuel and a fire under us,” Wilson senior Ryan Hough said. “Everything started from that point. We got working in the offseason, all of us, the whole team. We were hitting here the whole summer, in the mornings, in the afternoons. … Obviously, we wanted to be good again but I think one of our biggest goals was to beat Akron.”
The Lakemen did just that with a 20-7 second-quarter advantage and three players in double-digits. The Lakemen were led by Aiden Neumann’s 22 points, while Ryan Hough tacked on 14 points and Brock Lepsch added 10 of his own.
The games between the Tigers and Lakemen are not the only ways the teams know each other, many of the players on both teams play AAU basketball for the Buffalo Titans for Gerstung. The familiarity helps make the teams match up almost seamlessly against one another.
“I just think we’re a tough matchup,” Gerstung said. “…I think the matchups make it really competitive and then, just decision making when they’re out there. They’re high school kids. So sometimes they make great decisions. Sometimes they don’t and you just got to keep it moving and try to get them into positions to be successful.”
Both teams have captured plenty of Niagara-Orleans league crowns, with Akron’s title last year being their eighth in program history. Conversely, Wilson has 20 titles, but their last one came in the 2014-15 season.
As the Lakemen look to try to capture their first league title in a decade, the win over the Tigers puts them in pole position to end the drought.
“Akron’s a great team. They had one loss coming in,” Sippel said. “They are the defending champs from last season. So it was a big step, no question about it. But it’s just one game, a big one for us, but now we move and get ready for Newfane on Friday.”
This game is the first of two games that the teams will play against each other, with the next one coming on Feb. 13, at Akron.
After the loss, Akron’s Derren Brooks has the rematch circled in the calendar in red. He’s ready to get another crack at them and try to play spoiler.
“I already feel (that) I can’t wait to play them again,” Brooks said. “That’s all I can say.”