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GREENVILLE, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Another second-half collapse by East Carolina helped send Louisville to the Liberty Bowl for the second year in a row. The 19th-ranked Cardinals scored 26 straight points in the second half -- starting with Zek Parker's 91-yard return for a touchdown on the kickoff -- to clinch at least a share of their second consecutive Conference USA title with a 39-34 victory. Louisville (10-1, 6-0 C-USA) avenged last season's 28-25 loss to East Carolina -- its only conference setback in the last two years -- and made coach John L. Smith's 53rd birthday a happy one. The Cardinals, who will play the Mountain West Conference winner in the Liberty Bowl, have won seven straight since a loss to Illinois and recorded 10 wins in the regular season for the first time in school history. Louisville only other 10-win season came in 1990, when it was 10-1-1 under Howard Schnellenberger and beat Alabama in the Fiesta Bowl. The Cardinals held off a belated East Carolina (6-4, 5-1) comeback after opening a 39-21 lead early in the fourth quarter. The Pirates closed to 39-34 on David Garrard's one-yard TD run with 8:20 to play and Garrard's four-yard touchdown toss to Richard Alston with 2:57 left. East Carolina forced Louisville to punt and got back the ball at its 26 with 24 seconds remaining. Garrard completed a 29-yard pass to Alston on first down, but Louisville escaped when a pair of "Hail Mary" passes fell incomplete. The Pirates won their previous two games but not before nearly squandering big leads in the second half. They defeated Cincinnati, 28-26, last week, stopping a two-point conversion with 44 seconds left after leading 28-6 at halftime. East Carolina was not as fortunate against Louisville, which erased deficits of 14-0 and 21-10. Facing a fired-up Pirates' team on its home field, the Cardinals gave up two touchdowns in a 23-second span early in the first quarter. The Pirates scored another touchdown in the second quarter on their version of the "fumbleruskie" play to take a 21-13 halftime lead. But it took Parker just 13 seconds to reverse the momentum as the wide receiver made amends after dropping a sure touchdown pass late in the first half. Louisville failed on the conversion pass, leaving East Carolina with a 21-19 lead. But the Cardinals forced turnovers on each of the Pirates' next two possessions and converted both into TDs. Dave Ragone threw a pair of touchdown passes to Deion Branch in the second half, including a 11-yarder that gave Louisville a 25-21 lead with 5:37 to go in the third period. Again, the conversion pass failed. But T.J. Patterson scored on an eight-yard run with 2:37 left in the third before Ragone and Branch combined again for a five-yard TD strike that made it 39-21 with 11:59 remaining. Branch caught 10 passes for 161 yards to go over the 1,000-yard mark for the second straight season. Ragone completed 22-of-34 passes for 292 yards with three touchdowns and an interception. East Carolina came up with the game's first big play as Garrard's 50-yard completion to Alston set up Leonard Henry's five-yard TD with 11:49 left in the first quarter. Greg LeFever returned an interception to the Louisville 13 on the ensuing possession and Henry scored on the next play to make it 14-0. Louisville held Henry, the nation's third-leading rusher, to 79 yards, 61 below his average. Ragone pulled Louisville within 14-7 with a 17-yard TD pass to Ronnie Ghent, but the Cardinals had to settle for a pair of short field goals by Nathan Smith in the second period after twice driving inside East Carolina's 10. Smith also had a 42-yard field goal blocked in the final minute of the first half. East Carolina used a bit of trickery to open a 21-10 lead as defensive tackle Brian Fox picked a loose ball off the turf and chugged 34 yards down the left sideline with 10 minutes left in the first half. Garrard was 21-of-33 for 284 yards for the Pirates, who have not won a conference title since capturing the Southern Conference crown in 1976.
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