ALASKA faces the prospect of playing without an import in its first game in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup after the abrupt return of Octavius Ellis to the U.S. to attend to an ‘important family matter.’
The sudden development left the Aces with no import ithree days before their conference debut on Saturday against Globalport.
The team is now burning the line overseas in trying to get an immediate replacement for the 24-year-old Ellis, a cousin of the Indiana Pacers’ Monta Ellis.
A product of Cincinnati, Ellis arrived in the country last week and was personally fetched from the airport by coach Alex Compton, with high hopes of helping the Aces make it back to the finals of this same conference where they finished runner-up behind Rain or Shine last season.
[See Alaska import is no scoring machine like cousin Monta Ellis, but out to make mark on defense]