NEWBERRY - Newberry College head men's basketball coach Dave Davis earned his 400th career collegiate coaching victory Wednesday night, as the Wolves took down the Wingate Bulldogs by a 81-77 count.

Newberry moves to 14-5 overall and 10-5 in South Atlantic Conference play with the victory, while Wingate falls to 12-7 overall and 9-6 in league play. Newberry travels to the Cumberland Gap to take on league leaders Lincoln Memorial on Saturday night.

The South Carolina duo of Demarkus Smith (Johnston, S.C.) and Dondray Walker (Fountain Inn, S.C.) led the Wolves with 14 points apiece, while James Ashby (Auckland, New Zealand) and Xavier Holmes (Great Falls, S.C.) each scored 10 points.

Newberry shot an even 50.0 percent from the field in each half, with two-point scoring accounting for 12 buckets in each half. The Wolves' normally high-percentage three-point and free throw shooting came up lacking, but interior play prevailed.

Wingate raced out to a six-point lead in the first two minutes of the contest, aiming to add an eighth straight win to their streak against Newberry. The Wolves then took the lead thanks to a 9-2 run and never trailed again in the contest.

Newberry took its first double-digit lead of the game at the 5:29 mark of the first half, when Gerald Evans (Inglewood, Calif.) drained a three-pointer to put the scarlet and gray up by a 27-17 count. The Wolves led by 12 with just over two minutes left in the period, but the Bulldogs made a surge and cut the lead to four points, 36-32, at halftime.

With 12:20 to play, Newberry still only led by three points in what had been a very tightly played second half, but the Wolves howled with a 14-0 run over the next four minutes to stretch the lead to 17 points at 66-49.

The Bulldogs managed to chip away at the lead and got within two points in the final minute, but the Wolves put the clamps on their guests on defense at just the right time and made clutch free throws to give their head coach the milestone victory.