By JOEDY McCREARY
AP Sports Writer

GREENVILLE, N.C.(AP) -- In his first start at East Carolina,
quarterback Dominique Davis provided one of the greatest
finishes in the history of the program.

Davis heaved a 33-yard touchdown pass to a leaping Justin Jones
as time expired to give the Pirates a wild 51-49 win against
Tulsa on Sunday in coach Ruffin McNeill's debut at his alma
mater.

Davis was 27 of 46 for 383 yards with five touchdown passes -
two to Lance Lewis, two to Dwayne Harris - and one rushing TD in
his first start for East Carolina (1-0, 1-0 Conference USA).

"That was the greatest experience of my life," said Davis, the
former Boston College quarterback said. "There was probably
people in the stands - our fans - who probably thought the game
was over. But I told the team, 'Just trust.' As soon as I let it
go, I knew he was going to catch it."

G.J. Kinne finished 28 of 43 for 399 yards for Tulsa (0-1, 0-1).
His fifth touchdown pass - a 3-yard toss to Charles Clay with
1:22 left - appeared to have been enough for the Golden
Hurricane.

But Davis whisked the Pirates downfield in nine plays. On the
final snap, he launched the ball high toward a handful of
players in the end zone. The 6-foot-8 Jones outjumped everyone
for it, setting off a massive celebration.

"I've been doing this for 24 years, and that's never happened to
me," Tulsa coach Todd Graham said. "We usually have a play we
execute to put pressure on the quarterback so he can't make that
throw. We called the play and didn't execute. That's our fault."

A brief review upheld the call and the Pirates, who were flagged
for an excessive celebration, skipped the extra point and
instead took a knee.

"I guess I'm just lucky I'm taller than everybody," Jones said.
"My first thought (in the pile-up in the end zone) was just get
the ball safe, and the next thing I know, I felt like I'm being
crushed by a truck."

The teams combined for 1,117 total yards and the lead changed
hands 12 times during a wacky, back-and-forth C-USA shootout in
which defense seemed optional. Harris caught seven passes for
121 yards while Lewis finished with six grabs for 105 yards.

Those two were the biggest beneficiaries of Davis' big day. He
led BC to the 2008 Atlantic Coast Conference championship game,
but left the program and transferred to a junior college. He
signed with East Carolina to play for Skip Holtz, but he faced
an uncertain future when Holtz left for South Florida in January
and McNeill returned to his alma mater to replace him.

The best-kept secret in Greenville this summer was who would
start under center, and nobody knew who McNeill had picked until
Davis trotted off the sideline for the first play from
scrimmage. Davis said he was told "a while ago" that he would
start but to keep it under wraps, though McNeill maintained all
week that he was waffling between Davis and sophomore walk-on
Brad Wornick.

Looks like he picked the right guy.

Davis had touchdown passes of 43 and 30 yards to Lewis and 6 and
34 yards to Harris. He scored on a 2-yard keeper on the fourth
play of the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, his counterpart was just as productive. Kinne had TDs
of 12 yards to Clay Sears, 3 yards to Jameel Owens and 75 yards
to Willie Carter before he got a fortunate bounce on one of his
throws. His hard pass into the end zone bounced high off Thomas
Roberson. The crowd had already started cheering an apparent
incompletion when Trae Johnson leaped and pulled it out of the
air. That 11-yard touchdown put Tulsa up 42-38.

Still, there was 8:15 remaining - plenty of time for more
fireworks.

Two plays after Davis' 26-yard pass to Joe Womack on
fourth-and-3, he tossed a quick strike to Harris, who cut across
the middle of the field and scored from 34 yards out to make it
45-42 with 6:05 left.

But that only meant it was Tulsa's turn to score again. Kinne
led the Golden Hurricane 76 yards in 11 plays, capped by the
flip to Clay that seemingly had decided it.

"We knew we had to put up a lot of points," Harris said. "We
really took that as a challenge as an offensive team, and the
quarterback took that as a challenge to get the ball to the
receivers and make plays, and that's what we did."