Seeing led to believing for Nicole Lenard. Comment.

It started with a stepback three-pointer on the left wing, a feathery jumper that didn’t touch the net, just tickling twine. Comment.

D.J. Kennedy knows the reaction his St. John’s men’s basketball team’s shocking, 71-65 victory over No. 7 Notre Dame will draw when word spreads nationwide. Comment.

It was a season of surprises, outstanding running backs and hard-hitting linebackers. Port Richmond won its first city championship in football while Fort Hamilton nearly took home its third crown in four years. Xaverian bounced back from a winless season to challenge some of the finest the Catholic league has to offer. Comment.

Ending months of speculation, Bob Oliva will retire as Christ the King boys’ basketball coach Monday, he told Five Boro Sports Sunday night in a phone interview. Comment.

A Queens Supreme Court judge showed no leniency when he sentenced Darryl Littlejohn to 25 years to life in prison Wednesday for impersonating a law enforcement officer and kidnapping a York College student on her way home from school more than three years ago. Comment.

When Madeleine Martin first read the script of the play “August: Osage County,” she wasn’t sure she’d be able to bring herself to play the role of Jean Fordham, the cheeky and emotionally abandoned youngster in Tracy Letts’ wonderfully written family drama. Comment.

“The senator is now the senator.” Comment.

The MTA’s decision to shut down No. 7 train service from Manhattan to Queens for nine consecutive weekends could devastate already struggling businesses and force residents into long commutes, City Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Sunnyside) said during a Sunday news conference at the Vernon Jackson subway station in Long Island City. Comment.

After months of uncertainty, state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans) is poised to become the majority leader of the Senate following a Tuesday night meeting of Senate Democrats, he said in a statement. Comment.

A two-alarm fire raced through the home and museum of a College Point artist Tuesday night, probably destroying a collection of his life’s work. Comment.

U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside) recalled how he was hustled into a shelter to evade rockets fired from Gaza during his visit to Israel over the weekend and reaffirmed his support for the Jewish state in its most recent conflict with Hamas in a conference call Tuesday with reporters. Comment.

For Bellerose resident Balbir Singh, New Year’s Eve was not a time of celebration. Comment.

A family from Bayside and another from Flushing welcomed the first two babies born in the five boroughs within the first 10 minutes of 2009, while a Richmond Hill family’s newborn son was the first delivered in the state during the New Year. Comment.

Bayside’s popular Caffé on the Green closed its doors permanently on New Year’s Day after the city chose a new concessionaire to replace the catering hall at its Cross Island Parkway locale, a city Parks Department spokeswoman said. Comment.

Vivian Squires, the 86-year-old grandmother who fought off an attacker who robbed and stabbed her four times in her Springfield Gardens home  Sunday, left Mary Immaculate Hospital Tuesday afternoon, softly singing “I’m going home, I’m going home, I’m going home.” Comment.

A 9-year-old Ozone Park boy was killed Tuesday afternoon when he was struck by the campaign vehicle  used by a City Council candidate at the corner of Cross Bay and Rockaway Boulevards, police said. Comment.

Seeing led to believing for Nicole Lenard. Comment.