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FAIRFIELD, Conn. – A 9-0 run midway through the final half of action propelled Caldwell College to a 73-66 win over Slippery Rock University in semifinal action of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division II Men's Postseason Basketball Championship Tournament in Alumni Hall on the campus of Fairfield University.

SRU held a 41-38 lead with 13:23 left to play in the game before Caldwell went on the decisive run to take a 47-41 lead with 10:43 remaining.

The Rock, who finished the 2013-14 season with a 20-11 win-loss record, never trimmed the deficit to less than four minutes in the final 10-plus minutes and trailed by 10 points on three occasions.

Caldwell, which improved its season mark to 17-11, will play for the tournament title at 4 p.m. Sunday against either Central Athletic Collegiate Conference rival Dominican (N.Y.) or Philadelphia-based Lincoln University. The latter two teams met in the second semifinal Saturday.

SRU had four players finish Saturday's game with double-figure scoring totals, led by first-team All-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division senior center Maurice Lewis- Briggs' 17 points and eight rebounds.

Senior swingman Tabari Perry, a second-team All-PSAC-West performer, added 14 points and seven rebounds in his final collegiate game. Junior guard Antonio Butler contributed 11 points, senior guard Sa'Quan Davis scored 10 points and junior forward Kelvin Dixon chipped in eight points and a team-high nine rebounds.

Wyatt Polk's game-high 18 points led a group of five Caldwell players who had double-digit scoring totals. Billy McDonald added 14 points, while Michael Balkovic, Tarik Bridgeman and Kevin Walker each chipped in 11 points. Balkovic and Bridgeman each grabbed eight rebounds, while Walker snared seven.

The Rock finished the game with a 33% (21-64) efficiency on its field-goal attempts with an icy 10% (3 of 29) reading from 3-point range.  The Green and White sank 22 of 27 (78%) free throws.

Caldwell made 36% (21 of 59) of its field-goal attempts with a 24% (4 of 17) showing from 3-point range. The Cougars made 27 of 35 (77%) free throws, had a 46-43 rebounding advantage and were on the low end of a 9-8 turnover comparison.

The Rock took an early 3-0 lead on a 3-point basket by Lewis-Briggs but spent most of the first half playing catch-up after Caldwell scored 10 unanswered points to take a 10-3 lead with 17:30 left in the first half.

SRU regained the lead at 24-22 with just less than six minutes left in the half and, after Caldwell had knotted the count at 27-27, took a 34-32 edge into halftime.

The Rock maintained a lead until the 12:30 mark of the final half when Caldwell took a 42-41 lead as part of its decisive 9-0 run.

Notes: Saturday's game rang down the curtain on the collegiate careers of five Rock seniors: Davis, Lewis-Briggs, Perry, Daivon Jackson and Josh Martin … Lewis-Briggs, a transfer from Division I Morehead State, finished his only Rock season with 540 points, the ninth-best single-season total in Rock men's basketball history. Lewis-Briggs averaged a team-best 17.4 points per game this winter … Perry, the only four-year player in The Rock's senior group, finished his career with 956 points (44 points shy of becoming SRU's 17th 1,000-point scorer) and 646 rebounds (12th-best total in school history) … This winter marked the seventh time in Rock men's basketball history and fourth time in head coach Kevin Reynolds' six seasons a team won 20 or more games … The Rock recorded a sixth consecutive double-digit win total for the first time since the 1993-94 season and had a winning record for the sixth consecutive season for the first time since 1928.