MANILA : Without three vital cogs that helped them the last conference, Talk 'N Text coach Jong Uichico knew exactly what his players needed to do.

“I just asked them to play extra hard,” Uichico said Sunday night after the Tropang Texters showed no signs of championship hangover and plugged the holes created by his injured stars in a 95-91 win over Barangay Ginebra in the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

“Our confidence was high, coming off a championship, and we didn’t have a championship hangover or whatever you (media) call it,” Uichico added after pinning a second straight loss on the Gin Kings and getting their bid for a second straight championship off on the right foot.

Rookie point guard Kevin Alas and superstars Jason Castro and Ranidel De Ocampo all watched the game in civvies because of different injuries, but import Steffphon Pettigrew and several others stepped up.

Pettigrew scored 33 points and had 12 rebounds and four steals and Asian import Sam Daghles, the Jordanian-American, fired 12 to go with six assists as the duo combined to negate another great scoring effort by Ginebra import Orlando Johnson.

Johnson, who debuted with 50 points in a loss to Alaska last week, tossed in 46 but was taken out of the offensive flow by the Talk ‘N Text defense in the final seven minutes that also keyed the Texters’ victory.

Ginebra trailed by as large as 14 late in the second period but gamely fought back, even taking an 84-83 lead with 7:01 remaining after a short jumper by Johnson.

But that would be the prolific import’s final points and Ginebra would go scoreless for close to six minutes that had the Texters taking a 94-84 lead going into the final 1:27 after a split by Pettigrew from the charity stripe.

Only two late triples by the Kings made the final score as close as it was and not helping the Kings’ cause was a crucial call missed by the referees on a traveling Daghles that led to a Larry Fonacier free throw for 95-91 with 11 seconds to go.

Ginebra played without Japeth Aguilar, Chris Ellis and the 7-foot Greg Slaughter for the second straight game but still went on to take the Tropang Texters to the limit.

New coach Frankie Lim rued “some bad decisions in the endgame” which cost them the game.

“We lost the rebounding battle by just one (48-47) even if we were small, and we forced them (Texters) to 22 turnovers,” Lim said on the way to his car. “We just made some bad decisions in the endgame.”

Johnson played all but three minutes and shot 16-for-27 from the field, including a couple of thunderous jams in the first half that had the crowd roaring.

Lim also benched Asian import Sanchir Tungalag, the Mongolian who scored eight points and had four assists against the Aces. His fate, according to the Ginebra coach, now rests on management.

Danny Seigle tossed in 14 points and rookie Matt Ganuelas-Rosser added 13 for the Texters, who won the Commissioner’s Cup just last April 29 and surprised everyone with the way they came out for their first game of the conference.

Earlier, Barako Bull raced to leads of as many as 27 points before settling for a 105-90 victory over Blackwater Elite for a 2-0 card and a piece of the early lead.

Import Liam McMorrow scored 23 points and had 15 rebounds in just 33 minutes and Carlo Lastimosa and JC Intal combined for another 35 with Intal grabbing seven boards as the Energy slapped a third straight defeat on the Elite.

Marcus Douthit paced the Energy with 21 points and 13 rebounds with PJ Erram and Brian Heruela adding 12 each.