The fall signing period ended this week with a couple of notable Maryland-related developments.

On Monday, St. Anthony (N.J.) power forward Ashton Pankey committed to the Terps, giving Maryland a four-man class which also includes Tucson (Ariz.) Santa Rita point guard Terrell Stoglin, Montrose Christian shooting guard Terrence Ross and Miller School (Va.) small forward Mychal Parker.

Then on Thursday night, Maryland target Tobias Harris committed to Tennessee.

So how does Maryland's 2010 recruiting class stack up nationally?

• Rivals.com has UM at No. 17 -- without including Pankey's pledge.

• Scout.com lists Maryland at No. 19 overall.

• ESPN.com also pegs Maryland as having the 19th-best class.

• And MaxPreps.com -- also without including Pankey's commitment -- ranks the Terps as the No. 10 class in the country.

Analysis: Ross and Stoglin should develop into a nice 1-2 punch at the guard spots for Gary Williams.

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Calvert Hall small forward Damion Lee will play college basketball just a few miles down the road from his high school.

The 6-foot-6, 195-pound small forward signed with Towson on Wednesday, picking the Tigers over Quinnipiac.

“It’s a great feeling,” Lee said. “I was thinking about waiting until the spring time, but then the opportunity arose after the visit and I just felt it was a good decision for me to make.”

Lee, a Baltimore Sun All-Baltimore County selection who averaged 11 points and seven rebounds as a junior, took an official visit to Towson last weekend. While he initially gave some thought to leaving the area for college, seeing the Tigers’ 82-71 win over Miami of Ohio helped make his decision easier.

“I liked the fan support,” Lee said. “Their student section was pretty rowdy. I just think next year, we’re definitely going to build on that and keep the energy up and just hopefully turn Towson into an NCAA tournament team.”

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Tobias Harris, the five-star forward from Dix Hills, N.Y., has made his decision.

“I’m going to be playing my college basketball at the University of Tennessee,” said Harris, who announced his decision live on ESPNU Thursday night.

Harris picked the Volunteers over Maryland, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Louisville, Syracuse and West Virginia.

“I really had a great relationship with Coach [Bruce] Pearl and Coach [Tony] Jones,” Harris said. “It’s just a family atmosphere down there. I got along with the players real well and it’s just a great opportunity and fit for me.”

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Former Lake Clifton standout Cleveland Melvin is headed to the Big East.

Melvin, a 6-foot-8, 210-pound forward, committed to UConn today, picking the Huskies over DePaul, Memphis, Seton Hall and South Florida.

“It was kind of hard to choose because a lot of colleges were recruiting me heavy,” Melvin said. “But at the end, I chose UConn because it’s ... just a great staff and has great coaches. They support me, they just love me and have so much respect for me. I think I can improve my game there next year.”

Melvin's commitment comes one day after the end of the fall signing period. Even though that means he will wait until spring to sign his letter of intent, Melvin was ready to end his recruitment early.

“He visited UConn for Midnight Madness,” said Anthony Lewis, Melvin’s AAU coach with Cecil Kirk. “Then he went back on an official visit last weekend. He had two more visits scheduled on his docket -- Seton Hall and Memphis. The question for him became whether he wanted to extend this thing to the spring or whether he was going to make the decision now. He decided he was just going to be done with it and commit.”

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Poly coach Renard Lewis isn’t afraid to admit that the Engineers' success this season will depend largely upon the effectiveness of two seniors -- forward Montray Clemons and combo guard Jeffrey Joynes.

“Definitely it’s pivotal,” Lewis said. “They are my two seniors I’m really going to be relying upon. I think they’re going to be up to the challenge. They’ve definitely been putting in a lot of work in the weight room and their games individually on their own. They’re just really focusing on winning this season and putting us in a position that we can get down to Comcast Center, which is a goal we set for ourselves. Our team is going to go as far as they take us.”

Clemons, a 6-foot-7, 220-pound small forward, is “at minimum, a mid-major Division I player” in Lewis’ opinion. Clemons played for Cecil Kirk this summer but tore a ligament in his knee in July. Although his AAU season was cut short, Lewis said many schools have expressed interest.

“He’s gotten some interest from the University of New Orleans, Quinnipiac, Mount St. Mary’s, Lehigh, UNLV, Texas A&M and Miami,” Lewis said. “I think they really want to see how he progresses because [of his injury].”

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By the time he was 12, Ashton Pankey had a pretty good idea that he would play college basketball.

The 6-foot seventh-grader was a good student who wasn’t enamored with the game just yet, but that changed in hurry, especially after throwing down his first dunk that year.

“From seventh to eighth grade I grew from 6 feet to 6-6,” Pankey said. “That’s when I had my previous growth spurt. ... At seventh grade, I wasn’t as serious about basketball. During high school, I became more serious.”

The Maryland-bound power forward has made that abundantly clear the past three years, first while starring for Archbishop Molloy in Queens, N.Y., and then as a junior with the legendary St. Anthony High program in Jersey City.

Pankey’s seventh-grade predictions about playing college basketball came into focus during those earlier high school years. He knew he wanted to leave the New York area, essentially eliminating St. John’s and Seton Hall from contention. When Maryland came calling this summer, Pankey found what he was looking for athletically and academically.

“I’ve always wanted to play at the highest level of basketball, and one thing I dream of is being a pro,” Pankey said. “I work my hardest and do what I need to do, and I think Maryland is going to give me the best chance [of realizing that dream]. And it’s not just basketball. Maryland’s one of the best schools in the country in terms of academics, too.”

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St. Anthony (N.J.) power forward Ashton Pankey committed to Maryland today, giving the Terps their fourth commitment of the 2010 recruiting class.

Pankey, a 6-foot-8, 230-pound senior, chose the Terps over offers from Houston, Rice, Drexel and Hofstra. He joins Tucson (Ariz.) Santa Rita point guard Terrell Stoglin, Montrose Christian shooting guard Terrence Ross and Miller School (Va.) small forward Mychal Parker in Maryland's class.

“I think it’s a win-win situation,” said Jeff Rivera, one of Pankey’s AAU coaches with the New York-based New Heights program. “I think it’s a great fit for both Ashton and the University of Maryland. Obviously, Coach [Gary] Williams has seen him and Coach [Chuck] Driesell was following him around this summer and has been to a number of his workouts at St. Anthony's. I think it’ll be good for his potential. Hopefully everything will work itself out.”

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Two Maryland commitments were instrumental in Wise’s 6-0 win over Eleanor Roosevelt in the Class 4A South Region semifinals Saturday.

Titus Till intercepted a pass inside Wise’s 5-yard line in the second quarter and Rahsaan Moore rushed for a 1-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter for the game’s only points.

"I was just looking for a hole on that right side," Moore told The Gazette. "I wanted to follow a block from the fullback [Quentin Gartrell] and find a hole. I found one on that side and we scored. It was a tough fight. It was frustrating in the first half because we had some good drives and we had too many penalties. Then we were on defense almost the whole third quarter. We rely on our defense a lot. They came up with a big stop in the fourth quarter."

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After this weekend, the Maryland men's basketball program could have another addition to its 2010 recruiting class.

St. Anthony (N.J.) forward Ashton Pankey, who took an official visit to College Park last weekend, was scheduled to visit Houston this weekend. After that trip, the three-star prospect will make his decision.

“He really liked Maryland and I know he wants to be able to compare Maryland to another school,” [St. Anthony coach Bob] Hurley said.

According to ESPN.com's Christopher Lawlor, Maryland has a very good chance of landing Pankey.

Several sources feel Pankey, a Bronx, N.Y., resident, is a lock for the Terrapins, but it's the policy of coach Bob Hurley that players visit at least two schools, developing a point of reference and allowing comparison of programs.

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When Texas A&M-Corpus Christi opens its season Friday against Oregon State in Lubbock, the Islanders will have one assistant coach from Baltimore on the sideline (Kevin Norris, Lake Clifton) and two local players on the court (Kevin Palmer, Parkville and Terence Jones, Lake Clifton).

Dunbar senior Derrell Edwards, a Texas A&M-Corpus Christi commitment, will likely be paying attention to the game from afar, as will Digital Harbor’s Davon Usher, who pledged to the Islanders last week. He plans to sign his letter of intent during the fall period.

Usher, a 6-foot-5, 183-pound shooting guard, visited the campus over Halloween weekend and liked what he saw, calling Corpus Christi “a smaller version of Miami.” Knowing so many people affiliated with the program from his hometown didn’t hurt matters either.

“I think that’s what drove me to want to go to the school even more,” Usher said. “Basically, it’s like a Baltimore family down there. I already knew guys from Baltimore who went to the school and the coach [from Baltimore] who’s there. Me and Derrell basically grew up together. Now we’re just going down there together and getting work done. He committed and he really wanted me to commit. We came to a good decision, somewhere we were going to play together, have fun and win.”

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