If anyone had ever doubted that Japeth Aguilar is superstar material, then Sunday night’s game would have erased all that.

Taking charge on both ends when Barangay Ginebra needed it the most, the 6-foot-9 forward keyed a 97-95 decision of defending champion Talk ’N Text that gave the Gin Kings solo second place in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

Aguilar hit the go-ahead triple and then blocked the potential overtime-forging attempt by Ranidel de Ocampo at the buzzer as the Gin Kings completed a magnificent rally from 14 points down late in the third to improve to 4-1.

Only sister squad Petron Blaze’s 5-0 is the better record than what Ginebra has after Rain or Shine got waylaid, 90-88, by Globalport earlier.

Aguilar actually took the three-point shot against the original play mapped out by coach Ato Agustin in the Ginebra timeout with 22.9 seconds left.

“The play was really for Japeth, but for a pick-and-roll, and for him to take it hard to the hoop because Talk ’N Text was already in penalty,” Ginebra coach Ato Agustin said in Filipino when asked what he drew up for the team’s final play.

“Luckily for us, the triple went in.”

Talk ’N Text, the three-time defending champion, was in the lead at 95-94 going into the final 34.1 seconds after Larry Fonacier drained an 18-foot jumper coming off two screens and looping it over the arms of Aguilar.

The loss, which put the Tropang Texters at 3-2, was a particularly painful one since they had a chance to bloat that lead to three when Nonoy Baclao, who did a good defensive job on Greg Slaugher the whole night, muffed two free throws just over 10 seconds later.

Trailing by one and getting the ball back with 22.9 seconds left, Ginebra opted to go for the last shot in a win-or-lose situation, and LA Tenorio, who was playing with flu-like symptoms like Mark Caguioa, found Aguilar open at the left quarter court for the winning trey.

“I don’t want to make it an excuse that our guards were sick, that’s why we played a bad first half,” Agustin continued. “We were able to adjust in the fourth quarter and (Eman) Monfort and (Mac) Baracael stepped up for us.”

Monfort, the 5-foot-5 former Ateneo back-up guard in the UAAP, pestered his Talk ’N Text counterparts for the whole of the fourth quarter and threw off the Texters offense.

Baracael, meanwhile, hit all 12 of his points in the fourth quarter, including three triples that got the Ginebra offense humming again.

Aguilar finished with 21 points, 12 rebounds and tied his career-high with seven swats, while Slaughter contributed 16 markers and nine boards while battling a constant double team underneath.

Jason Castro scored 27 points, but was held down to only two by Monfort’s porous defense. Fonacier added 23, six rebounds and three assists. Alapag struggled to shoot just seven.

Meanwhile, Globalport won back-to-back games for the first time in its young PBA life earlier in the night after holding off Paul Lee and Rain or Shine.

Jay Washington scored 20 points and had 13 rebounds, Sol Mercado also tossed in 20 that went with seven assists and rookie RR Garcia was again big in the stretch for the Batang Pier, who almost blew an 11-point fourth quarter lead before rising to .500 for the first time this season at 3-3.

The loss was just the second in six games for the Elasto Painters, who flubbed several chances in the closing seconds to at least forge overtime, including one play in the final nine seconds where they couldn’t get off a clear shot.

Lee, the top rookie two seasons ago who was the hero in a narrow victory over San Mig Coffee on Friday, finished with 20 points for the Painters, 13 of them coming in the fourth when Rain or Shine had trailed 83-72.

And the Painters almost pulled this one out, having possession in the final 9.9 ticks only for JR Quiñahan to hold on to the ball a tad too long and force Lee to take an off-balanced triple try that was way off.

“A win will always make it easier for us to jell together,” rookie Globalport coach Richie Ticzon said after steering the Batang Pier to their first win over the Rain or Shine franchise and coach Yeng Guiao.

Justin Chua, another rookie out of collegiate power Ateneo, finished with 12 points for Ticzon.