HOUSTON – Liberty forward Sue Wicks appears to be leaning toward retirement. Turning 34 in November, the Garden fan favorite said she might not return for her fifth season with the team.

“There’s a lot of good young players out there,” Wicks said after the Liberty’s 79-73 loss to the Comets at the Compaq Center, which closed the WNBA Championship in a two-game sweep. “Sometimes it’s time to step aside.”

In what might have been her last game, the former Rutgers star had seven points and five rebounds in 26 minutes off the bench. In her four Liberty seasons, the 6-foot-3 Wicks, a Center Moriches, L.I., native, averaged 4.8 points and 4.5 rebounds.

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With yesterday’s Liberty loss, New York City teams have lost five straight championships to Texas clubs: The Knicks were defeated by the Rockets in ’94 and by the Spurs in ’99. The Liberty have dropped final rounds to the Comets in ’97, ’99 and ’00. Further upstate, Buffalo teams have also fared poorly, with the Cowboys beating the Bills in ’93 and ’94, and the Stars defeating the Sabres in ’99.

The Comets become the fourth professional team to win four straight titles since the Islanders won Stanley Cups from ’80-83. The last baseball team to win at least four straight championships was the Yankees (’50-’54) and the last basketball team to accomplish that feat was the Boston Celtics (’59-’66).

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In a league in which $55,000 is the average salary, Championship MVP Cynthia Cooper seems to have done well financially off the court. The 5-10 Houston star has her own shoe with Nike called AirC14, she signed a recording contract in ’99 with Virgin Records and she wrote her autobiography titled “She Got Game,” which was released last year.

The money must be rolling in. Parked inside the tunnel at Compaq Center yesterday, Cooper’s shiny black, two-door Mercedes-Benz stood out. The Texas license plate read, “The Mam.”

Cooper, who scored 25 points yesterday, has announced that she is retiring after four years with the Comets.

Cooper won two NCAA championships (’83 and ’84) with USC and she competed in two Olympics, winning a gold in ’88 and a bronze in ’92. She also played 11 seasons overseas in Spain and Italy.

Given little time to rest, Sheryl Swoopes, who scored a team-high 31 points yesterday, joins the women’s Olympic basketball team Thursday in Hawaii.

“It could be worse places,” she said.

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Garden president Dave Checketts and Knicks GM Scott Layden attended yesterday’s game.

For winning, each Comet receives $10,000 and each Liberty player gets $5,000.