MANILA: Barangay Ginebra showed its ability to bounce back on Tuesday night, and let poor Barako Bull feel its fury.

Listless in the first half, the Gin Kings were able to put it together in the final two periods and bamboozled the Energy, 98-70, for a piece of the PBA Governors’ Cup lead at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

LA Tenorio also woke up from his offensive slumber to spearhead the dizzying Ginebra breakaway as the Gin Kings posted the most lopsided victory in the tournament to catch San Mig Coffee and Talk ‘N Text at the top at 4-1.

The win came just two nights after the Kings themselves fell prey to the Mixers in a whirlwind finish that they couldn’t match. And the character that Ginebra showed in coming back from the setback

“The best thing about tonight is us being able to bounce back,” said Ginebra coach Jeffrey Cariaso. “Tonight we showed character and improvement.”

Tenorio scored 22 points, 11 of them in the third period where Ginebra posted leads of as large as 24 points after settling for a 33-33 tie at the half.

So efficient were the Kings in the third quarter that they dropped 35 points in the period – two more than their entire first half haul – to break the collective backs of the Energy and doom Barako Bull to a fifth straight defeat in a cellar-dwelling 1-5 record.

Cariaso did not spare words to praise his starting point guard, who had struggled in their first four games here before waking up with aplomb against the hapless Energy.

“LA has been playing well even if he wasn’t scoring in our previous games,” Cariaso said. “We were asking him to defend (the opponents’ best local scorers) in our previous games and it took its toll on him.”

Import Zaccheus Mason fired 16 points and grabbed 14 rebounds and rookie Greg Slaughter was the second player with a double-double for Cariaso after finishing with 11 and 11 as they controlled the shaded lane with impunity.

Tying the Mixers and the Tropang Texters for the lead meant that the Kings are well inside the top four, which will get twice-to-beat privileges in the quarterfinals.

Also rising to that spot was injury-riddled San Miguel Beer, which came rallying back from 15 points down at the start of the third period to nip Globalport, 100-97.

The Beermen got huge offensive contributions from June Mar Fajardo, import Reggie Williams and reigning MVP Arwind Santos to improve to 4-2 and be at No. 4 for the moment.

Fajardo, San Miguel’s 6-foot-10 cornerstone who is the leading MVP candidate for the season, scored 26 points and had a career-high 27 rebounds to underscore his dominance in the middle all night.

Globalport started out hot but finished with a whimper for the second straight game, losing for the fourth time in its first five outings to tie for eighth spot with idle Meralco.

Only two teams will be eliminated, but the jockeying for position will start with the elimination round to enter its final two weeks as teams would obviously not want to finish Nos. 5-8 because of the need to beat the top four teams twice.

The Batang Pier, who also blew a 20-point first half lead in losing to San Mig Coffee three nights before, had a chance to forge a tie only for rookie Terrence Romeo to waste away the final seven or so seconds.

“I expected a very close game, because Globalport is a very tough team. But I didn’t expect that we would be playing catch up,” San Miguel assistant Todd Purves said. “We didn’t come out ready to play. Fortunately, we were ready to finish.”

Santos did the most damage on the Batang Pier in the third period, scoring 14 of his total with Williams shooting nine as San Miguel quickly got back in the thick of things even without two key players in Marcio Lassiter and Chris Ross.

“Right now, there is no timetable for their return, we will have to talk to the (team) doctors,” Purves said.

Dior Lowhorn scored 24 points in the first half and helped the Batang Pier to that hot start. He finished with 38 points.