SANFORD - A slow first half turned into a barn-burning third quarter for the Sanford Indians basketball team, yielding a 49-43 win over the Sargent Farmers Saturday night. The result was the first defeat of the season for the Sargent varsity boys and a tie for first place in conference standings between the Indians and Farmers. The squads have traded home victories, so for the season Sanford is 9-3 and Sargent 11-1.

The girls' results earlier in the evening didn't make Sargent backers feel any better. The Indians triumphed 47-35.

After a first quarter in the boys' contest with Sanford being outscored 12-5, a competitive second quarter was topped by a three-point jump shot by Farmer senior Brandon Paulson in the last two minutes to give Sargent a 19-16 halftime lead.

At that time, for Sanford fans, it looked like the most inspiring event of the night might be a halftime award of Denver Nuggets tickets to Matthew Peterson to top off a $984 fundraiser for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. Practically none of the 300-plus spectators left the Sanford gym during halftime, because the Sanford dancers gave an acclaimed performance to those present. Sales of pop and hot dogs were probably mashed by the show, although this reporter's observation is that a good percentage of those present picked up treats by coming and going during the third quarter.

What those who left missed was 21 points scored by the Indians during the period, helped by fierce defensive efforts to hold Sargent to 6 points during the quarter. That was after a Sanford foul to start the second half led to two successful free throws in the first 25 seconds to give the Farmers a 21-16 lead. The margin was really the last moment of glory for the Farmers. Sanford took a two-point lead with 5:40 left to go in the third and never trailed again.

Indian junior Tommy Caldon hit a three-point jumper, and Sanford never looked back. After a poor-shooting first half, Sanford' running game and improved shooting and inside rebounding left the Farmers in the proverbial dust. Both teams are physically large-sized, and the Sargent squad shares the ball to a great degree, but once the Indians conquered the challenge of facing an equally-sized team, the contest was largely done.

Sanford led 37-25 at the end of the third quarter. It was 45-32 with just more than three minutes left in the contest, when a Farmers rally made the ending interesting. Midway through the fourth quarter, Indians senior Brett Forster was cut, a long slash on the side of his forehead that looked like he'd been at the short end of a blow in a boxing contest. He had to leave the game completely and change jerseys from number 23 to number 13 to return.

Farmer senior Morgan Biel hit a layup with 1:20 left in the game to make the score 46-40, but the intense defense by Sargent in the last three to four minutes of the contest was too little, too late. Sophomore Dion Oakes led the Farmers in scoring with 13, while Biel had 12. For Sanford, Forster and senior Ty Mortensen both had 12. Sanford also won the game at the free throw line, hitting 12 of 22 attempts, while Sargent was seven for 13.

For the girls, Mortensen's sophomore sister Tori shared the family's good day, leading the winning Indians in scoring with 14, while sophomore Adriana Aguilara had 17. The girls' contest was the most hotly contested, skilled confrontation between women this reporter has seen this season.

The Indians led 15-13 at the end of the first half. Sargent tied the score thirty seconds into the second half. After a total of twelve fouls by the teams in the third quarter alone, Sanford led 26-21, but a running fast-break lay-up by Farmer Aguilara brought the end of the third quarter score to 26-23 in Sanford's favor.

The Sanford girls kept knocking Sargent passes out-of-bounds during the final quarter. Missed Sargent shots and free throws helped the Indians maintain and even increase its lead during the final minutes, in spite of turnovers and steals benefiting the Farmers in the last segment of the game. Sargent girls are now 5-7 for the season. The Sanford girls record was not available.