MANILA: Mark Caguioa is back, and so is the familiar swagger of the entire Barangay Ginebra squad.

Playing to what his coach said was 80-percent capacity, Caguioa scored 15 points in the third period Wednesday night and promptly helped the Gin Kings to a 98-86 rout of the most feared team in the Philippine Cup, San Miguel, at the Araneta Coliseum.

That he played that way and the Kings ripped such a formidable foe in the Beermen right in their first outing spoke volumes of the capability of the crowd-darlings to make a serious run in the season-opening tournament.

“He’s lost a step, lost a jump, but once he gets confidence like in today’s game, he will get to where he wants to be,” Uichico said of Caguioa. “He’s really 80% and hopefully, he could get to 100 as the season goes on.”

Caguioa was not in the team when it lost Game 7 of the Fiesta Cup Finals to San Miguel more than two months ago, that’s why the energy level of the game was very high despite the fact that the dream match came very early in the tournament.

“It’s just out first game and everyone was feeling each other out, trying to get the right chemistry,” Uichico explained. “Of course, it’s nice to win, but hopefully, we could get to sustain it.

“We knew we needed to play with an energy level that was a notch higher considering that we lost in the (Fiesta Cup) Finals,” he added.

The loss was unexpected from the Beermen, who added another superstar in Arwind Santos in the off-season and a reliable guard in Denok Miranda.

But San Miguel played minus the fluidity that it had in the last conference and actually got just two players scoring in twin digits: Danny Ildefonso with 19 and Mike Cortez with 10, quite odd for such a powerhouse side.

Santos finished with just nine in a starting role, while Danny Seigle, who was also making his own comeback, never got in the groove and failed to score in four minutes on the floor.

Reigning Most Valuable Player Jay-Jay Helterbrand scattered 17 markers and had nine assists, while Ronald Tubid scored eight of his 12 points in the fourth period which helped keep the Beermen in check.

In the first game, Alaska won a game it was supposed to and Willie Miller performed exceptionally well to add something to it.

The 6-foot dynamo quelled all speculations that he wasn’t happy with the Aces, completing the third triple double of his career and the first by anyone this season as Alaska broke away in the second half for a 99-83 victory.

Miller scored 19 points, dished out 12 feeds and had 11 rebounds in just 36 minutes while also getting a lot of help from the others.

“They have everything to gain and nothing to lose,” Alaska coach Tim Cone said of Barako Bull, which gave him and his Aces a lot to handle in the first half. “It’s tough to play a team like that. There were very little expectations from them (for the tournament).”

“If we beat them, it won’t be much news. If they beat us, that’s news and that’s why we were really pressured to perform.”

Miller, a vital cog in the Philippine squad that finished eighth in the Fiba-Asia Qualifying in China , scored 15 points in the final two periods, the same total that Reynel Hugnatan had off the bench as the duo took turns in hitting the Energy Boosters.

Four more players scored in twin digits for Cone even as Yousif Aljamal tossed in 18 markers to pace Barako Bull. The former Talk ‘N Text reserve also plucked down 15 rebounds for the first double-double of his career, his eight offensive boards also a career high.

On the strength of 11 first half points from Aljamal, the Energy Boosters took the half, 41-38, before completely imploding in the final two periods as Alaska scored 61 points to complete the rout.

“He feels he has something to prove,” Cone said of Miller, who missed a crucial layup in Game 7 of the Finals here last year which allowed Talk ‘N Text to escape with the title. “We have something to prove. We feel we can compete and we’ll be fine.”

Only two players finished in twin digits for the Energy Boosters, who played without long-time manager Tony Chua for the first time in their PBA existence. Chua drowned during the onslaught of tropical storm Ondoy