Gamecocks, Dawn Staley targeting top women’s basketball recruit from Virginia
Micah Ojo is a top 10 national recruit. She’s been described as a “fantastic athlete.” She’s won back-to-back player of the year awards in the Virginia’s top classification.
She’s also a new South Carolina women’s basketball recruiting target.
Ojo announced via social media on May 3 that she’d received a USC scholarship offer after talking with Gamecocks coach and three-time national champion Dawn Staley.
“I am blessed to say that after a great conversation with Coach Staley, I have received an offer from the University of South Carolina!” Ojo posted on X.
Ojo is a 6-foot-1 wing and a rising junior at Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She is a five-star recruit, the nation’s No. 3 small forward and the No. 7 overall player in her class, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.
As a sophomore, Ojo averaged 18.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4 steals per game for Princess Anne (28-0), which won the state championship in Virginia’s top public school classification. She had 17 points, 8 rebounds and 8 blocks in the title game.
She was named the Virginian-Pilot newspaper’s area girls basketball player of the Year and the VHSL Class 5 girls player of the year for the second year in a row.
Ojo, the Virginian-Pilot wrote in April, “is so much better than anyone else in Hampton Roads, it is unimaginable she will not become the first four-time All-Tidewater Player of the Year if she remains healthy. … She can pretty much do what she wants, when she wants.”
Brandon Clay, 247Sports’ director of women’s basketball scouting, wrote that Ojo excels in the open floor and her ability to create shots in a halfcourt setting “should continue to blossom as her overall skill set and shot-making abilities increase.”
South Carolina is among the most prominent power conference schools to offer Ojo a scholarship, but the Gamecocks have plenty of competition. Other offers include Texas A&M, Ole Miss, UNC, Louisville, Alabama, Tennessee, Maryland and Michigan.
Ojo, a rising junior, is in no rush to commit and plans to pick a college some time ahead of her senior season, per the Virginian-Pilot. She’s one of 10-plus players who Staley and USC have offered in the Class of 2027, per the website WBBBlog.com.
South Carolina WBB recruiting update
Now that USC is through portal season — the Gamecocks signed two top-rated transfers in Ta’Niya Latson and Madina Okot — it’s on to high school recruits.
The Gamecocks, per WBBBlog, have offered nearly 20 players in the Class of 2026. That group is a class ahead of Ojo and others in the Class of 2027 and in more of a time crunch — most will be committed by the basketball early signing period this fall.
South Carolina and Staley hosted No. 1 overall 2026 recruit Saniyah Hall on an official visit Monday, per her Instagram.
Hall (no relation to former USC player Bree Hall) is a 6-2 forward at Montverde Academy and was teammates with USC signee Agot Makeer this season.
The Gamecocks have been involved with a number of other top 2026 recruits, including guards Kate Harpring, Jerzy Robinson, Jordyn Jackson, Savvy Swords; and forwards Oliviyah Edwards, McKenna Woliczko and Olivia Vukosa.
USC doesn’t have any 2026 commitments yet, but that’s not out of the ordinary. Most Gamecocks recruits commit in the fall, and Makeer was a spring commit/signee.
