BRIEFLY WILLIAMS' MURDER TRIAL MOVED.

Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Services

Former NBA star Jayson Williams' trial in the death of a limousine driver will be moved to a neighboring county because of heavy publicity about the case.

Judge Edward Coleman on Thursday directed that the trial, tentatively scheduled to begin in January, be held in Somerset County in New Jersey instead of Hunterdon County.

Williams, 35, is accused of recklessly handling the shotgun that killed limousine driver Costas Christofi in 2002 at Williams' Alexandria Township home. He could get nearly 55 years in prison on the charges, the most serious of which is aggravated manslaughter.

Defense lawyers had asked for the move, saying the ``avalanche of publicity'' would prevent the seating of an unbiased jury.

--Stanford coach Mike Montgomery, who has a 363-165 record in 17 seasons, will receive the John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching award in April.

--The WNBA Select team lost 68-54 to European champion UMMC Yekaterinburg, a squad with five starters from the U.S. league, at the Women's World Cup in Samara, Russia.

Sparks forward DeLisha Milton had 20 points and 13 rebounds for the Russian team, which finished atop Group A. Indiana Fever forward and former UCLA standout Natalie Williams scored 11 points in the first quarter for UMMC, which led 39-26 at halftime.

--Iowa State senior forward Jackson Vroman, arrested on a drunken-driving charge, was suspended from the team for the second time in five months and his return was in question, coach Wayne Morgan said.

Vroman was suspended in May after being charged with possession of marijuana. That suspension, mandatory under the athletic department's code of conduct because it involved drugs, later was lifted.

Vroman led Iowa State in rebounding (9.4), was second in scoring (12.5) and shot 55 percent from the field last season.

BOXING: Laszlo Papp of Hungary, the first boxer to win three Olympic gold medals, died after a long illness. He was 77.

Papp won the middleweight gold at the 1948 Games, and light middleweight golds in 1952 and 1956.

TENNIS: Andy Roddick's 20-match winning streak ended with a stunning 7-6 (3), 6-2 loss to unseeded Nicolas Massu in the third round of the Madrid Masters.

Roddick, the U.S. Open champion, let the first set slip away after leading 5-2, then had his powerful serve broken twice in the second set. He ended the match by double-faulting.

--Jennifer Capriati and Martina Navratilova have qualified for the season-ending WTA Tour Championships next month at Staples Center.

Capriati made it into the eight-woman singles field, and Navratilova and partner Svetlana Kuznetsova qualified in doubles.

--The WTA Tour is adopting harsher penalties for match-fixing, though it said there is no sign of players gambling or rigging outcomes in tennis.

Starting next year, a player caught fixing a match could be fined $100,000 and suspended. The length of suspensions wasn't announced.

SOCCER: Iraq's soccer federation will receive $700,000 from the sport's governing body, FIFA, to help rebuild the team.

Iraqi's soccer headquarters were destroyed during the recent fighting that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime.

HORSE RACING: Fantastic Groom, ridden by Julie Krone, defeated Fly and Eagle by a head in the $49,000 feature race at Santa Anita.