BG women lose player; replace assistant coach

5/23/2013

BOWLING GREEN — The Bowling Green State University women’s basketball team has lost a player and an assistant coach while adding a new assistant.

The Falcons announced Wednesday Jacey Brooks has been named an assistant coach, while confirming that assistant coach Emily London has left the program. Meanwhile, Grand Valley State announced Bailey Cairnduff has transferred from BG and will join the Lakers next season.

No reason was given for the transfer, but Cairnduff’s hometown of Morley, Mich., is roughly an hour north of Grand Valley State’s campus in Allendale, Mich. Bowling Green is roughly four hours away from Cairnduff’s home.

As a freshman, Cairnduff played in 32 games for the Falcons last season, starting the first four games of the year, and averaged 4.7 points and 1.5 rebounds per game. A fine shooter, she made 24 3-pointers, third-most on the team, and made 30.8 percent of her 3-point attempts while making 34-of-36 free throws (94.4 percent).

Since Grand Valley State is a Division II school, Cairnduff will be eligible to play immediately and will have three years of eligibility remaining.

With the departure of Cairndurff and the graduation of four seniors, the Falcons currently list 11 players on the roster, including seven who played last year, North Carolina State transfer Erica Donovan and three incoming freshman.

Brooks has spent the past three seasons as an assistant coach at Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y. Before that, she was an assistant coach at St. Bonaventure in New York for one year and director of basketball operations for the Bonnies for two years.

Brooks played at Buffalo State College, where she was a two-time second-team choice in the All-State University of New York Athletic Conference and led the Bengals to three straight SUNYAC tournament berths.

At the end of her career, she ranked fourth in school history in points (1,219) and ninth in rebounds (554).

“I am so excited and honored to have the opportunity to become a part of the Bowling Green women’s basketball program and community,” Brooks said in a release. “I am looking forward to working with coach [Jennifer] Roos and the rest of the staff to continue the rich winning tradition here at BGSU.”

An athletics department spokesman confirmed that London, who just completed her first season as an assistant, left for personal reasons.

Contact John Wagner at:jwagner@theblade.com,419-724-6481 or onTwitter @jwagnerblade.