MANILA: Even with a new coach, a retooled lineup and the expectations of a rejuvenation at an all-time high, Barangay Ginebra appears to still be a troubled team.

Barako Bull, a team laden with point guards, turned the form charts on the Gin Kings on Saturday night by coming back from a 21-point first quarter deficit to score an 82-79 victory that kept Ginebra winless in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

The Energy, held to just three points in the first six minutes and to nine the entire opening period, came up with a solid finish to add to the Kings’ woes, rising to 1-1 while dealing Ginebra a second straight defeat.

It was the third straight season that two-time Grand Slam champion coach Tim Cone started with a 0-2 record, but this one was a shocker considering that the Kings had a huge advantage in size and talent on the Energy.

JC Intal, the surprise inclusion in the Gilas Pilipinas squad that finished second to China in the Fiba Asia Olympic Qualifier in Changsha last month, carried the fight for the Energy in the early goings before getting a lot of help from RR Garcia in the endgame.

Intal scored 22 points and Garcia dropped 10 of his 16 in the final frame before the Energy’s collective defense sealed the deal by botching up Mark Caguioa in the potential game-tying play inside the final eight seconds.

“I thought we did a good job defensively,” a beaming Barako Bull coach Koy Banal told reporters. “Our offense will start from good defense, that’s what I have been telling the boys during our preparation for this game.

“And that’s exactly what happened in today’s ball game,” said Banal, whose wards also pushed NLEX to the limit last week before bowing.

Greg Slaughter, the 7-foot giant who is Ginebra’s franchise player, scored 27 points and grabbed 26 rebounds.

But he had two crucial blunders in the endgame that helped aid a 12-0 run by the Energy, who erased a 68-73 deficit and zoomed to an 80-73 advantage going into the final 1:46.

It was the first time in the career of Slaughter that he had a “20-20” game, and the reason why the Kings fell for the second straight night was that he couldn’t get the support he needed from his star-studded supporting cast.

After Slaughter, only LA Tenorio finished in twin digits for the Kings with 12, but he almost did not get there.

Tenorio connected on a triple with 12 seconds remaining for Ginebra’s last-gasp stand, shoving the Kings to within 79-80 before Garcia drained two free throws on the other end after a Sol Mercado foul with eight seconds remaining.

That was exactly the time that Ginebra had in order to take the game to an extension.

Cone drew up a good play that had Slaughter finding Caguioa with enough space for a triple in the right quarter court only for the Barako Bull defense to respond quickly with Intal and Garcia bottling up the one-time MVP for a steal that sealed the deal.

“All the teams are pumped up when they play Ginebra and I give credit to the players – who prepared themselves mentally and emotionally,” Banal added. “They were so excited that’s why we were down by 20 points.”

Barako was actually down, 27-6 late in the first period but slowly got into a rhythm starting in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, Talk ‘N Text was another powerhouse that continued to struggle, but the Tropang Texters did all the right things in the stretch to avoid falling to Mahindra, 101-97, to also be at 1-1.

Jason Castro scored 28 points and five others were in twin digits for the Texters, champions here three seasons ago.

Pint-sized point guard LA Revilla paced the Enforcers with 21 points, with rookie Bradwyn Guinto shooting 17.