I collapsed into a heap on the floor of my living room, exhausted, drained and completely spent. John Hall’s 53-yard field goal attempt was true, splitting the uprights at the Oakland Coliseum and simultaneously extending the New York Jets’ season for at least one more week. Comment.

Dan McCloskey didn’t even have to look, he just knew. When the senior forward on the St. Francis Prep hockey team won the puck behind the Christ the King net, he was convinced he’d find James Bertorelli in the slot. Comment.

There was little to celebrate for the St. Francis Prep girls’ basketball team Sunday, as the team was trounced by defending public league champ Murry Bergtraum, 65-43, but there was a silver lining. Comment.

The Holy Cross Knights bounced back from a tough league loss to Molloy Friday night to defeat Moore Catholic, 60-43, Sunday in the Staten Island City challenge at the College of Staten Island. Comment.

The Christ the King boys’ varsity basketball team sustained a severe blow last week with the dismissal of standout senior guard Craig “Peedy” Nelson from the team as well as the school, said Principal Michael Lynch. Comment.

Citing a scheduling conflict at Madison Square Garden, the PSAL announced Monday only the boys’ and girls’ ‘A’ championships will be played at the World’s Most Famous Arena on March 16. Comment.

After showing their teeth in a handful of close losses, the Campus Magnet Bulldogs finally took a bite out of the competition as the varsity basketball team upset the William Bryant Owls, 68-63, in the PSAL Queens’ Winter Classic at Elmcor Sunday afternoon. Comment.

Grover Cleveland girls’ varsity basketball head coach Jack Ciano took home a win and probably a few more gray hairs from the PSAL Queens Winter Classic Sunday afternoon at Elmcor as his Indians shook off a lackluster start to defeat the John Bowne Lady Wildcats, 51-41. Comment.

What a difference a few days makes. Comment.

The Rockaway Artists’ Alliance is now showing the exhibit, Winter Light, at its sTudio 6 [sic] gallery at Fort Tilden Park at the western edge of the Rockaway peninsula. The artworks, by RAA members, are prints, paintings, sculptures and photographs, arranged around the white painted room, most depicting scenes of winter. Comment.

Trailing 33-24 at the half, Jerry Ingenito followed his Queens College women’s basketball team into a classroom just off the court at Adelphi’s Woodruff Hall in Garden City, L.I. Sunday. Comment.

They’ve gone head-to-head on Queens playgrounds, and Saturday Royal Ivey and Cheyne Gadson met again but with the stage slightly larger. Comment.

You know you’re in a special place when the public address announcer welcomes everyone to “Madison Square Garden, the World’s Most Famous Arena.” Comment.

History was made last week. The hopes and dreams of the people of Queens are now represented in city government by an entirely new slate of elected officials, including the first African American woman to hold the position of borough president and first Asian American to serve on the City Council. Comment.

People still talk about the Blizzard of 1996 in New York. You remember that blizzard — slippery roads, rail lines, subways, and buses stalled; unending mountains of snow to shovel; and no place to park your car. Yes, folks, that was a bad one, but I remember a few other blizzards that I will remember forever. Comment.

For their first production of 2002, The Gingerbread Players of St. Luke’s present guest artist William Lawrence as Mark Twain. Lawrence brings to life America’s favorite author, humorist and storyteller, as he performs excerpts from Twain’s novels and autobiography. Performances are Saturday evening, Jan. 19 at 7:30 p.m., with a Sunday matinee Jan. 20 at 3 p.m. The suggested contribution is $10, with groups of 6 or more at $8. Comment.

“New York is the most famous city in the world,” said former Mayor Rudy Giuliani at his farewell address on Dec. 27. Comment.

An astute observer of the results of the elections for the City Council might draw the conclusion that it pays to be a president of a civic association in Queens because so many of them have won seats. Of course, an election is not based on one position but...... Comment.

Welcome to the Point. The Point being College Point. All your senses were tested during the holidays with the lights and the horns, and I am sure you came out glaring and holding your ears, but I hope that your celebration was worthy. Comment.

Bayside, 212-26 16 Ave., Coop Garden Apt., $167,500, Bed 2, Bath 1 Comment.

Senior Theater Acting Repertory welcomes seniors interested in acting. Meetings held Wednesdays and Fridays. 718-347-2310 or Stan Guttman at 718-224-2729. Comment.

The city Board of Education came up with a plan to close the school construction budget gap last month, but the amended proposal has not halted an audit to find out exactly how the $2.3 billion shortfall happened. Comment.

40-12 Bell Blvd. Bayside Comment.

Queens County Savings Bank announced the appointment of Claire Shulman to its board of directors Jan. 2, just a day after she stepped down as Queens borough president. Comment.

City Councilman A. Gifford Miller (D-Manhattan) was set to assume the post of council speaker Wednesday after gaining the support of Queens Democratic Party boss Thomas Manton and receiving a host of other political endorsements. Comment.

When the Astoria Theater opened in the early 1920s, its vaudeville performances were nearing the end of an era as movie pressure threatened to kill the circuit of live performers. Comment.

Stitches from the Heart, Inc., a southeast Queens non-profit organization that teaches men, women and young people the benefits of quilting, held a tea party and fund-raising event in Cambria Heights Sunday. Comment.

Two Queens schools were among a dozen throughout the city this week that had the dubious distinction of joining the ranks of the state Education Department’s SURR list of the worst schools, while one borough school was taken off. Comment.

David Weprin (D-Hollis) finally joined the family business when he was sworn in as a member of the New York City Council by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). Comment.

This column recently suggested that great care should be given in selecting appropriate gifts — especially for children, This is a very special problem when a pet is to be gifted. Comment.

Although a wildcat bus strike forced borough commuters to scramble for transit alternatives Monday morning, by noon the same day drivers had returned to the job still lacking the contract that has eluded them for more than a year. Comment.

Firefighters rescued a man and woman from the fourth floor of a burning Woodside apartment building late Tuesday afternoon by carrying them on their backs down what remained of a partially collapsed stairwell, fire officials said. Comment.

Residents living off Willets Point Boulevard in Whitestone are set to receive a new traffic signal by May, a spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation said. Comment.

A Brooklyn woman convicted last year of murdering her half-brother’s fiancée was sentenced last week to 35 years to life in prison after apologizing to the court and the victim’s family. Comment.

Although forced out of her city council seat by term limits, Karen Koslowitz has not abandoned the people of Queens. Comment.

Joseph Liu, the father of Flushing’s new councilman, was sentenced to a month in jail and six months of home detention Tuesday for misapplying $1 million in funds from the Great Eastern Bank in Flushing that he helped to establish. Comment.

The Queens Democratic Party showed up in full force last week to welcome Helen Marshall, the first black elected to a countywide office in Queens, to the borough presidency. Comment.

A hotly contested proposal to build homes and condominiums on an empty Middle Village lot came under further scrutiny this week as a land use committee refused to endorse the project. Comment.

For the second time in just over a month, family, friends and firefighters gathered at a small Kew Gardens church to celebrate the life of Firefighter Christopher Pickford, who was killed trying to rescue people from the World Trade Center Sept. 11. Comment.

Kathy Rollo of Bayside answered Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's appeal to help World Trade Center attack victims by doing what she loves best - dancing. Her 107-night Terpsichorean marathon raised $7,000. Comment.

Kyrk Peponakis gave a little reminder to the Queens College men’s basketball team, but Gary DeBerry didn’t need to hear it. The sophomore guard remembered all too well the feeling last year after the Knights lost a pair of games to Concordia. Comment.

The sentencing of a teenager involved in the September 2000 robbery and murder of a Chinese restaurant owner drew emotional speeches Tuesday from the victim’s widow, the defendant and his mother in a Kew Gardens courtroom. Comment.

In 2001, murders in the 105th Precinct nearly tripled from the previous year even though the overall crime rate dropped by 7.2 percent from the previous year, Police Department statistics showed. Comment.

Queens cocaine users were denied a white Christmas this year, District Attorney Richard Brown said last week as he announced a $25 million seizure. Comment.

Police from the 102nd Precinct responding to a routine burglary call at a Richmond Hill warehouse put an end to one of the largest counterfeit trademark operations in city history when they stumbled across more than $6 million in counterfeit designer goods, prosecutors said Friday. Comment.

City Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) and an aide to state Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin (D-Flushing) met with police and victims of recent thefts in downtown Flushing Monday to help foster relations between the NYPD and the local Asian community. Comment.

A 16-year-old Flushing resident was arrested and charged with murder in the early Sunday morning stabbing of a Babylon man at a 153rd Street residence in the Murray Hill section of Flushing, police said. Comment.

Although City Councilman Dennis Gallagher (R-Middle Village) won his new title during the November election, he wears it like a man who is tromping along familiar ground. Comment.

The front porch of Gloria Morrison’s 38th Street home in Astoria is lined with bowls of cat food and adorned with stickers announcing her as a friend to the animals. Comment.

Wasting no time in showing he planned to uphold campaign pledges made to constituents, James Gennaro (D-Jamaica Estates) spent his first day in office following through on five promises that formed the centerpiece of his run for City Council. Comment.

Toning those abs? Fulfilling a New Year’s resolution to work off some extra pounds? If you’re working out at a Forest Hills gym, you have a little more to worry about than pulling a muscle. Comment.

Although the number of rapes reported in the 109th Precinct jumped by 37.5 percent in 2001, overall crime dropped in the precinct by nearly 3.7 percent, police statistics showed. Comment.

Crime in northeast Queens’ 111th Police Precinct was relatively quiet in 2001 except for a perennial thorn in the precinct’s side: car thefts. Comment.

For years residents of Douglaston’s 248th Street have watched drivers crash as they failed to negotiate the sharp turn between the Long Island Expressway service road and their quiet residential street. The dismayed onlookers wondered why the street was open at all. Comment.

Nearly 1,000 people, including more than a dozen key figures in Queens politics, packed the Forest Hills Jewish Center Sunday to witness the official inauguration of City Councilwoman Melinda Katz (D-Forest Hills). Comment.

Ten days after terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center by flying two hijacked planes into its towers, Flushing residents saw an unusual sight on Union Street. Comment.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s stadium dreams the stop sign Monday when he said budget constraints meant the projects would not be given priority this year. Comment.

The state Department of Health revealed Monday the much-anticipated results of a Jamaica cancer study, which concluded the cancer rate in the neighborhood surrounding a toxic site is not unusually high. Comment.

Two Department of Sanitation plans recently made public are causing a figurative stink and may lead to a literal one as well. Comment.

A man with ties to organized crime who once ran one of the largest stolen auto parts shops in the city was shot to death last week in Howard Beach, authorities said. Comment.

40-12 Bell Blvd. Bayside Comment.

The Flushing YMCA, 138-46 Northern Blvd., offers free computer, recreational swimming, game room time, and other activities for children 8-18 Saturdays from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. 718-961-6880. Comment.

A Bayside synagogue is now awaiting the decision of the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals in its last-ditch effort to build a new, three-story home. Comment.