A seven-footer came in, a stratospheric high-flyer made his way into the squad and there was also youth infused into Barangay Ginebra.

But at the end of the day – when everything is said and done – it’s still safe to say that the Gin Kings are still Mark Caguioa’s team.

Coming to the rescue of the embattled Kings after they had lost a 19-point lead, the man known as “The Spark” was at his finest elements and keyed a thrilling 109-104 victory over Globalport that kept Ginebra unbeaten in the PBA Philippine Cup eliminations.

Caguioa, the Most Valuable Player two seasons ago, dropped 14 of his 29 points inside the final four minutes of the fourth period as he singlehandedly put Ginebra’s third straight win away by nailing shots from inside and out.

Ginebra led by as many as 19 points mainly because of the dominance inside of the 7-foot Greg Slaughter and the acrobatic 6-foot-9 Japeth Aguilar, only for things to turn sour for the Kings late in the fourth which allowed the Batang Pier to ease out front, 93-91, going into the final 4:02.

And that was Caguioa’s cue to step in.

The 6-foot gunslinger drained a triple to give Ginebra the lead to stay before adding two free throws that touched off a swashbuckling finishing kick by the Kings, who were dragged into their tightest match thus far in the young season by the rookie-laden Batang Pier.

Justin Chua put Globalport within 95-96 after a putback of a Jay Washington miss before Slaughter rammed a tomahawk slam off the defense of Washington on the other end just 20 seconds later.

Caguioa then saw the Batang Pier off with eight straight points as Ginebra took a 106-98 lead going into the last 40.1 seconds.

“Of course,” Ginebra coach Ato Agustin said when someone pointed out that Caguioa is still his main man after all. “He takes over in situations like that. When he’s hot, our job is to give him the ball.

“From that point (when Ginebra trailed by two), I told him (Caguioa) to take over,” Agustin said. “All the plays we called were for pick and rolls for him up high so he can set himself up.”

Caguioa hit a triple late in the third quarter and surpassed original Ginebra legend Sonny Jaworski in 12th spot in the all-time list for three-pointers made with 650. That shot also put him past Yoyoy Villamin in 22nd spot in the all-time scoring list with a total of 8,523 points.

“We relaxed a little bit, especially at the start of the fourth period,” Agustin said in explaining how the Batang Pier were able to claw back. “It happens to every team. We learned our lessons in this game that we cannot take any squad for granted.

“We cannot take rookie-laden teams for granted.”

Globalport also had a hero of its own in Terrence Romeo, the former Far Eastern ace in the UAAP who also had 14 fourth quarter points.

Romeo’s baskets were also as scintillating as Caguioa’s with his double-pumping layup with 4:02 remaining giving the Batang Pier that 93-91 lead.

After tossing in a season-high 34 points last week, Romeo finished with 27 and is easily the most prolific rookie in the lot.

Caguioa showed his respect for Romeo after the final buzzer, going to Romeo for a congratulatory hug at midcourt.

Ginebra’s victory took most of the luster away from a similarly hard-earned 114-111 overtime victory by defending champion Talk ’N Text over Alaska in the first game.

The Tropang Texters, who are seeking to become the first win to win this conference for fourth straight seasons, got a career-high 33 points from Jason Castro and twin digits from three others in improving to 2-1 overall.

It was the second straight loss for Alaska, which dropped to 1-3.

The Aces were led by the career-high 22 points of Aldrech Ramos as they played without last season’s top rookie Calvin Abueva from 7:52 of the fourth.

Abueva played just 17 minutes and had 14 points before fouling out.