Loyola Marymount transfer guard Chance Stephens committed to Maryland while on his official visit to College Park Saturday, TSR has confirmed.
Stephens, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard, is the first portal transfer to commit to head coach Kevin Willard and the Terps this offseason.
A California native, Stephens prepped at Riverside (Calif.) Poly High School. He had originally committed to Rhode Island and then-head coach David Cox coming out of Poly, but ended up at LMU after the current Terps assistant was let go by the school. Cox has a long-standing relationship with Stephens' father, who grew up in Washington, D.C. and played his high school basketball at Archbishop Carroll.
A freshman for the Lions this past season, Stephens averaged 6.0 points and 1.0 rebounds in 17.1 minutes of action per game. The majority of his scoring came from beyond the arc where he was 49-of-131 (37.4%) from three-point range.
While Stephens played limited minutes for much of conference play, he showed major flashes of potential during the non-conference slate, scoring a game-high 23 points on 7-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc in an overtime win over Wake Forest in the Jamaica Classic championship game. He was named tournament MVP for his play in the win over the Demon Deacons.
Stephens' numbers were more impressive the more minutes he played this past season. In games in which he played at least 20 minutes, he averaged 12.3 points, while shooting 37-of-77 (48.0%) from beyond the arc.
The addition of Stephens should help fill the void left by graduating senior Don Carey, who made a team-high 57 three-point shots this past season.
As things stand right now, the Terps are either right at the 13 scholarship limit or one over, depending on whether you include senior Donta Scott as part of the current roster (a decision on whether he will return to Maryland should come very soon). But there is still expected to be additional attrition which will likely open up two more scholarships, one for Stephens and one for Willard to pursue the No. 1-ranked player in the transfer portal, 7-foot All-American Hunter Dickinson.
