The USC men's basketball team finally reached full strength yesterday, and the Trojans showed few weaknesses against Saint Mary's.

Mike Gerrity, in his third game of the season, scored 17 points and Nikola Vucevic had 15 points and seven rebounds as USC beat Saint Mary's, 60-49, in the semifinals of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Gerrity, a 6-foot-1 senior guard, debuted for USC in a 77-55 victory over Tennessee on Dec. 19. He had to sit out the first semester after transferring from Charlotte.

"Mike Gerrity, since he came back, we played eight games without him, he's really taken over the leadership of our team," said USC coach Kevin O'Neill. "He's done a great job for us."

USC's Leonard Washington, a 6-7 sophomore, made his season debut yesterday after sitting out with academic trouble, and contributed 10 points and six rebounds.

O'Neill jokingly said the MVP of yesterday's game was the USC compliance and academic department.

"It was great to get Leonard back today also because he gives us another big guy off the bench that we can use," O'Neill said. "This is the first time we've had our whole team together."

USC (7-4) has won five straight and will play UNLV in tomorrow's final at 4:30 p.m. Saint Mary's (10-2) had its eight-game winning streak snapped. The Gaels will play Hawai'i for third at 2:30 p.m.

Gerrity scored 12 points in the first half on 6-of-6 shooting from the field, and hit a crucial 3-pointer late in the game after the Gaels had cut a 16-point lead down to four.

"I've been working my way in each and every game and I feel more and more comfortable out there," Gerrity said. "I had a year worth of practice with these guys so that definitely contributed to how comfortable I am with the team."

Saint Mary's coach Randy Bennett was already familiar with Gerrity, who played two seasons at Pepperdine.

"He was the freshman of the year in our league (West Coast)," Bennett said. "We knew about him."

USC fronted and collapsed on Gaels big man Omar Sahman, a 6-foot-11 senior, with either Vucevic (6-10) or Washington as the primary defender. Sahman, who averages 21.5 points and 11.6 rebounds per game, had limited touches and finished 4 of 9 from the field with 13 points.

"Our whole thing was we were going to make him work hard to get everything," O'Neill said. "He's a great player. That guy is going to be an NBA player."

Saint Mary's Bennett added: "They fronted him. That kid (Vucevic) is a good defender. Their plan was to make it hard to catch and front him across. It took away just throwing it in to him, but you need to have a good post defender to do that. They had two big ones."

Saint Mary's, which was averaging 84.4 points per game and shooting 50.2 percent from the field, shot 16 of 53 from the field.

"They're good defensively," Bennett said. "We didn't shoot the ball well, but their defensive is very good. They're big and quick and cover up things."

The Trojans scored the first six points of the second half to take their largest lead at 39-23 with 17:04 left.

Mickey McConnell scored 10 points during a 20-8 Gaels' run, which got Saint Mary's within 47-43 with 4:48 left.

"We took a timeout," O'Neill said. "It was our second timeout in a three-and-a-half minute period. What we talked about there, we had gotten a little stagnant offensively. Most of it was my fault. I told the guys somebody needs to step up here and make a big shot, and Mike answered the call."

Gerrity's 3-pointer from the left wing, his only field goal of the second half, extended USC's lead to seven with 3:42 left.

"I noticed that their guard was helping out on the big man and I was kind of hoping (Vucevic) would swing it over because I was ready to knock it down," Gerrity said.

The basket started a 13-5 game-ending run for USC. The Trojans' final six points came from the free-throw line.

"Saint Mary's made a big-time run at the end, our guys answered the call and made some stops," O'Neill said.

All in all, O'Neill was very happy with the Trojans' performance. USC finished 24 of 46 from the field.

"I was very proud of our guys' effort," he said. "I like how they played. I like how hard they played. I like the spirit they played with. I like how they shared the ball."

COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON 72, SMU 71

Donavan Monroe scored on an off-balance jump shot with 1.1 seconds remaining, giving the Cougars the victory in a consolation game.

SMU took a 71-70 lead with 6.6 seconds remaining on a putback by Paul McCoy. Monroe then drove the length of the court and scored from the baseline for the game-winner.

Jeremy Simmons led CofC with 18 points, and Monroe and Tony White Jr. added 15 each. The Cougars (6-5) will face Western Michigan for the consolation title tomorrow.

Mouhammad Faye led SMU (4-6) with 17 points. The Mustangs will face Northeastern for seventh place tomorrow.

WESTERN MICHIGAN 75, NORTHEASTERN 60

Alex Wolf scored 15 points and David Kool had 13 points and seven rebounds to lead Western Michigan (5-5) over Northeastern (2-7) in a Diamond Head Classic consolation game.

The Broncos shot 48 percent (24 of 50) from the field, including 63 percent (10 of 16) from 3-point range.