GORHAM — Jaycie Christopher can’t pinpoint exactly when her basketball confidence faded. It wasn’t in one momentous moment. Confidence drains in a slow leak until it’s gone and you’re flat and hurting.

That’s how it happened for Christopher at the University of Maine. She arrived in Orono in the fall of 2022 as the reigning Miss Maine Basketball. She played in 30 games that season and started three of them.

By the end of last season, her junior year with the Black Bears, she felt lost.

“I’ve never been an overly confident person,” Christopher said Monday afternoon. “In high school, it made me a better player, because I was always working, working, working. In college, I continued to work and work and work, but I wasn’t getting the results. That was really hard for me mentally.”

Christopher needed a change, and she found it at the University of Southern Maine. As a senior with the Huskies (25-2) this season, the 6-foot guard regained her passion for basketball. That helped reignite USM’s program, which won the Little East Conference title Sunday and heads to the NCAA Division III tournament this weekend when it takes on Johnson & Wales at 5:15 p.m. Friday at Bowdoin College.

USM coach David Chadbourne wasn’t familiar with Christopher when she was leading Skowhegan to the Class A state title in 2022. He was coaching the men’s team at Franklin Pierce. So when USM men’s coach Mikey Coppersmith told him Christopher was in the transfer portal, Chadbourne thought, “Great, who’s Jaycie Christopher?” He got a crash course and knew she would be a leader on Day 1.

Graduate student Liz Cote, a USM guard, knew Christopher from playing against her in AAU games years ago. Christopher would be the perfect piece to complete the Huskies’ puzzle, Cote said.

Christopher had great relationships with Amy Vachon and the coaching staff at Maine, as well as her teammates. It wasn’t an easy decision to leave. Her confidence was falling with every shot that didn’t. Last season, she shot just 31.5% from the floor and 26.7% from 3-point range. Christopher had so many conversations with her coaches, trying to figure out how to fix it.

“Just playing so tense, and with no confidence, I didn’t even recognize the player that I was anymore,” she said. “If I knew how to fix it, I would do it, because it wasn’t fun. Being here, I’ve found that again.”

What Christopher has meant to the Huskies is hard to quantify, Chadbourne said. There’s the stats, of course, 19.4 points, 9.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game. She played all 40 minutes of the LEC final, recording 12 points and 12 boards. The 3-point shot that abandoned Christopher at Maine last season has come back in a big way. She leads NCAA Division III at 47.4%.

“There’s so many intangible things she’d added. Her work ethic. How calm she is. How unselfish she is,” Chadbourne said. “She’s a great example and role models for the kids to say, ‘hey, this is what it should look like.'”

Before she made her decision to transfer, Christopher talked to a lot of people. Her older brother, Marcus, enjoyed a nice basketball career at USM. Hampden Academy’s Bryce Lausier transferred to USM last year after playing at Maine. Christopher met Chadbourne and her new teammates last spring and played with the Huskies in a Portland summer league. It just clicked. The confidence level crept back up. She’s the player who wants the ball in the big moments again.

Two years after playing for Maine in the NCAA Division I tournament, Christopher has helped lead the Huskies head to the Division III tournament for the 27th time. She is on target to graduate this spring with a degree in organizational leadership. Everything about this has been a success.

“We’re just excited we get to keep playing. When you get to the end of the season as a senior, you start to hold on to every moment a little bit more,” Christopher said. “Waking up this morning knowing we get to have practice tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and we get to play a game together again, that’s really exciting.”

That’s the other thing about confidence. Even if it fades, it doesn’t have to be gone forever.