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The flamboyant Ellis who is back on another tour of duty, came away with big plays right on his debut with the Aces this concference, as Alaska Milk turned back Purefoods, 94-84 victory, in a game that made Cone the winningest coach in the pro-league in terms of games won.

Cone, who has been coaching for the past 20 years now, notched his 602nd career win in the PBA, relegating Baby Dalupan to second at 601.

Ellis, on the other hand, not only helped Cone achieve the feat, but also helped the Aces to finally barge into the win column after four starts in the season-ending PBA-Motolite Fiesta Conference at the Araneta Coliseum.

But the prolific American guru still maintains his high respect for the “maestro.”

“Baby is really a class of his own,” he said, crediting his feat to great Alaska players like Johnny Abarrientos, Jojo Lastimosa, Rene Hawkins, Sean Chambers and Devin Davis.

“Baby is the legend, and forever will be. He’s my hero while growing up and he will be someone I will always be looking up to. I think he’s still the greatest coach ever,” Cone added.

Replacing the inefficient Galen Young, Ellis barged back into the limelight in his sixth season as reinforcement, finishing with 26 points, 16 rebounds and five assists.

LA Tenorio torched Purefoods with eight of his 15 points in the final period to offset the absence of Tony de la Cruz, who finished with 20 points leaving the court in the third quarter due to injury.

More than anything else, however, Ellis, a former Best Import awardee, played hard-nosed defense on Brian Hamilton, holding him to only 10 points in 36 minutes of action for the Giants who suffered their second setback in four games.

“He just came from a career-threatening injury in Australia,” Cone said. “He never played in eight months and can’t lift as much weight as he used to. And tonight, he carried us to victory.”

With Hamilton registering an anemic performance, Purefoods drew firepower from Kerby Raymundo and James Yap, who had 19 and 18 points respectively.

But after closing the gap to within four, 82-86, in the final 1:54, Tenorio and Ellis unloaded an 8-0 bomb to put the game away, 94-82.

The Scores:

Alaska (94) — Ellis 26, De la Cruz 20, Tenorio 15, Miller 12, Hugnatan 9, De Vance 4, Thoss 4, Fonacier 2, Ferriols 2.

Purefoods (84) — Raymundo 19, Yap J. 18, Simon 16, Hamilton 10, Villanueva 10, Canaleta 5, Allado 4, Yap R. 2, Vergara 0, Alvarez 0.

Quarterscores: 26-23, 44-41, 70-64, 94-84.