Final Score: East Carolina 54, UAB 42

Birmingham, AL (Sports Network) - Dominique Davis passed for 331 yards and five touchdowns to lead the East Carolina Pirates to a 54-42 victory over the UAB Blazers in a Conference-USA shootout at Legion Field.

Jon Williams rushed 14 times for 82 yards with a touchdown and also caught five passes for 115 receiving yards and a score for the Pirates (6-4, 5-1 C- USA), who became bowl eligible and halted a two-game skid in the process. Lance Lewis added six catches for 62 yards with a touchdown in the victory.

Bryan Ellis completed 31-of-49 passes for 418 yards with five TDs and an interception for the Blazers (3-7, 2-4), who have dropped two straight since a double-overtime win over Southern Miss on October 30. Pat Shed carried 18 times for 81 yards while Jeffery Anderson caught a pair of TD passes in the losing effort.

UAB entered the second half trailing by three, but wasted little time in taking a 28-24 lead. The Blazers began the first drive of the third quarter on their own 30-yard-line, and after a 12-yard scamper by Shed, Ellis and Roddell Carter hooked up on a 58-yard bomb down the left sideline.

Following a 41-yard field goal which brought ECU within one, UAB found the end zone again with 5:53 to go in the third quarter. A nine-play drive was capped by Daniel Borne's eight-yard TD rush up the middle and the Blazers led 35-27.

Early in the fourth, ECU's Giavanni Ruffin broke several tackles and lunged across the goal line. The 10-yard score brought ECU within 35-34.

An Ellis-to-Anderson 13-yard TD then gave the Blazers a 42-34 lead.

From that point, ECU took control and finished the game with three consecutive touchdowns. Davis hit Michael Bowman for an 11-yard TD, but the two-point try failed and the Pirates trailed by two.

With 5:48 to play, Davis again threw an 11-yard score, this time to Williams, then ran in the two-point conversion for a 48-42 advantage.

The finishing touches were put on 94 seconds later via Davis' 10-yard TD pass to Dwayne Harris.

ECU has now won four straight against UAB.

Midway through the first quarter, UAB opened the scoring on a four-yard touchdown pass from Ellis to Anderson.

On the ensuing possession, the visitors responded with a 13-play scoring drive culminated by a five-yard TD connection between Davis and Lewis.

The Blazers regained the lead soon after when Ellis again threw a four-yard score, this one into the hands of Patrick Hearn, and the hosts led 14-7 less than two minutes into the second quarter.

Mike Barbour's 52-yard field goal on ECU's next drive cut the margin to 14-10.

A quick four-play drive from midfield led to a 21-10 UAB advantage. Ellis hooked up with Mike Jones for 27 yards to get the Blazers near the red zone before he found Shed in the end zone from 22 yards out.

But the Pirates answered with an eight-play, 60-yard scoring drive ended via a 29-yard TD strike from Davis to Andrew Bodenheimer.

The scoring in the first half was capped with 40 seconds on the clock when Williams ran into the end zone from nine yards out and the Pirates took a 24-21 lead into the locker room.