Dick Peth has won 600 games in his 37-year coaching career, including this one when the Knights defeated UW-Stevens Point at the 2017 D3hoops.com Classic. Photo by Larry Radloff, d3photography.com

Dick Peth won his 600th career game when Wartburg downed UW-Eau Claire on Thursday night, 82-70. The Knights' long-time bench leader has 379 wins in 25 seasons at Wartburg plus another 221 at University of Denver.

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Wartburg took control of the game with a 15-0 run early in the first half that put the Knights in front, 21-6. Wartburg led by double-digits for much of the second half until the Blugolds made a late run, pulling within five with four minutes to play. After a couple of empty possessions for both teams, Wartburg scored three straight layups and closed the game out with a 10-3 run.

Senior forward Davis Roquet scored a career-high 24 points on 9-for-16 shooting. Wartburg (8-1, 2-0 A-R-C) shot 51 percent as a team and hit seven of its 16 three-point attempts.

Peth started his head coaching career at then-Division II University of Denver in 1985-86 where he went 221-123 over 12 seasons with the Pioneers. He is the program's all-time winningest coach and was inducted into the University's Hall of Fame in 2020. His best season at the University of Denver came in 1992 when the Pioneers went 26-5 and reached the NCAA Division II Tournament North Central Regional Final, which was the equivalent of the Sweet 16.

Peth, who played at the University of Iowa for Lute Olson from 1975 to 1979, returned to the Hawkeye State to take Wartburg's head coaching job in 1997-98. Four years later he led Wartburg to the NCAA Division III Tournament when the Knights went 24-4. Wartburg reached the Round of 16 in the NCAA Division III Tournament in 2016-17. 

Peth is one of just two active Division III men's basketball head coaches with at least 600 career victories. The other is Brian Baptiste who has won 676 games at Mass-Dartmouth entering Saturday's games.

Wartburg, which currently has the best record in the A-R-C, travels to conference foe Simpson on Saturday and then will play two games at a holiday event in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.