BRIEFLY ONE MORE PROBLEM FOR WNBA.

Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Services

Still dealing with a new business model, some franchises folding and others moving, and a bid for a team from a Connecticut casino, the WNBA found itself with another issue Friday.

The players association is wondering about the slow pace of contract negotiations.

The four-year collective-bargaining agreement expired in September, and since then there has been just one meeting between the union and the league.

``We met last November, and they asked for a proposal,'' said Pam Wheeler, director of operations for the union. ``We provided one within four days and then received a letter expressing disappointment and asking for another proposal.

``We asked them for a counter-proposal. We've had no response to date.''

The union seeks improvements in salaries, which averaged $46,000 last season, some kind of free-agency system and loosened restrictions on players marketing themselves during the season.

--No. 25 DePaul (13-4) jumped out to a 10-point halftime lead en route to a 78-62 victory over visiting Alabama-Birmingham (5-10) in a women's game.

COLLEGES: A sport-utility vehicle carrying players on Yale's baseball and football teams slammed into a tractor-trailer on a snow-slick highway in Fairfield, Conn., killing three students and injuring six others.

Kyle Burnat, a sophomore relief pitcher from College Park, Ga., was killed in the chain-reaction crash that involved four vehicles, police said. The tractor-trailer had lost control and crossed into oncoming traffic at about 5:30 a.m.

The other students killed were sophomore Andrew Dwyer and junior Sean Fenton, who did not play on school teams.

OLYMPICS: A furor over conflict-of-interest charges involving U.S. Olympic Committee chief executive Lloyd Ward escalated with three more resignations and a warning from Congress that it might be time to make some changes in the turmoil-filled organization.

Disturbed by the most recent controversy, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, summoned USOC leaders to a meeting later this month to discuss the future of Olympic sports in the United States. He warned the Olympic movement cannot be ``eroded by personnel problems or failure of its management.''

FOOTBALL: The Avengers released former San Diego State quarterback Jack Hawley, who had been competing for the Avengers' backup job in training camp with Ryan Helming and Matthew Sauk.

SOCCER: Goalkeeper Brad Friedel was voted the U.S. Soccer Federation's male athlete of the year.

Friedel, 31, tied a World Cup record last year by stopping two penalty kicks in the first round and helping the United States make it to the quarterfinals, its best showing in 72 years.

--Juan Jose Gomez made three leaping saves to preserve El Salvador's 0-0 tie with Guatemala in a soccer exhibition at Santa Ana Bowl.

Gomez made a two-handed deflection of Cesar Alegria's 45-yard line drive in the 14th minute and used another two-handed deflection to stop Denis Chen's 30-yard line drive in the 69th minute.

BOXING: Undisputed junior welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu is scheduled to defend his titles tonight against veteran Jesse James Leija in Melbourne, Australia. It will be the first time Tszyu (29-1-1, with 23 knockouts) has fought in his adopted homeland in five years.