Former Miss Maine Basketball and Maine Gatorade Player of the Year Jaycie Christopher said she is looking forward to playing for the University of Southern Maine next season after transferring from the University of Maine.
The Skowhegan guard spent three seasons at UMaine, but she struggled after a solid freshman campaign and her playing time dwindled.
So she entered the NCAA transfer portal.
“It was a really hard decision [to transfer] but, at the end of the day, I just wanted to play and find joy,” said Christopher.
“I love everyone at UMaine. It has been an incredible experience,” she added. “Any time you step onto the court with Maine across your chest, it’s an incredible feeling.”
USM is an NCAA Division III program while UMaine is the state’s only Division I program.
Christopher was UMaine’s fifth-leading scorer as a freshman, averaging 4.9 points per game and leading the team in 3-point shooting percentage among players who took at least 19 3-pointers (42.5 percent) and in free throw percentage (87.5 percent).
She shot 38.9 percent from the floor and also averaged 2.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists while seeing 20.9 minutes of playing time per game.
In her sophomore year, she shot 32 percent from the floor and 34.1 percent from long distance and averaged 2.9 points and 1.1 rebounds. Her playing time dropped to 13.1 minutes per game.
As a junior this past season, Christopher averaged 12.4 minutes. She produced 2.4 points and 1.3 rebounds per game while shooting 31.5 percent from the floor and 26.7 percent beyond the 3-point arc.
“There is nothing I can pinpoint. Sometimes things just happen and you just roll with it,” said Christopher.
She said the coaches at UMaine had been “really supportive” of her since she arrived.
“We are very thankful to Jaycie for what she did for our program for the last three years,” said UMaine head coach Amy Vachon. “Jaycie is an amazing young woman, and we will miss her at UMaine. We are very excited to follow her season and cheer her on at USM next year.”
The 21-year-old Christopher said once she entered the portal, several coaches reached out to her.
“But I wanted to stay closer to home and Southern Maine is still part of the UMaine system and that was really big, academically,” said Christopher. “The coach [David Chadbourne] is great and I got to go down and meet some of the team, which was awesome.
“In a lot of ways, it was a really good fit,” said Christopher, whose older brother Marcus played basketball at USM.
Chadbourne led the Huskies to an 18-10 record this past season and a 12-4 mark in the Little East after going 13-14 and 10-6 in his first year.
USM had gone 8-18 and 6-10 under head coach Samantha Norris in 2022-23.
Third-seed USM reached the Little East title game this past season, where it was beaten by top seed UMass Dartmouth 94-50.
There were 12 Maine natives on the USM roster and several will be returning, including leading scorer Lucy Wiles, a freshman guard who played at Hampden Academy.
“I’m excited to play with that group. I’ve gotten to know some of them pretty well and it’s a really special group. I think it will be a lot of fun to compete with them,” said Christopher.
Christopher was a two-time first team Bangor Daily News All-Schoolgirl Basketball selection.
She led Skowhegan to its first state Class A title her senior year when she averaged 23.5 points, 9.1 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 3.5 steals per game.
She is Skowhegan’s all-time leading scorer with 1,561 points.
She signed a letter of intent to attend Boston University but transferred to UMaine before her freshman season.
In her 92 games at UMaine, she scored in double figures 10 times including a career-high 26 points in a win over Army-West Point her freshman season.
She averaged 3.4 points and 1.5 rebounds per game in her career.
Christopher said the highlight of her UMaine career was winning the America East tournament and earning an NCAA Tournament berth her sophomore year.
“That will always be a highlight … getting to go to March Madness. It was just really special to be able to do that with Anne [Simon] and Anna [Kahelin] as grad students,” she said. “Being able to get that for them was really special.”
