UVM's Catherine Gilwee named America East rookie of the year

Catherine Gilwee led a batch of America East year-end awards for the University of Vermont women's basketball team, the conference announced Thursday afternoon.

Gilwee, the former Champlain Valley Union High School star, was voted the league's rookie of the year.

The guard started 21 of UVM's 29 regular-season games, averaging 2.7 assists a game, which ranked first among freshmen and 10th overall in the conference.

Gilwee, who scored a career-high 15 points in both games against Stony Brook, also landed on the all-defensive squad. She's the fifth Catamount to earn the top rookie award.

More: How a surging UVM women's basketball team held off Binghamton

Emma Utterback (first team), Anna Olson (second team, all-academic) and Josie Larkins (third team, all-academic) also reaped postseason honors for the Catamounts.

Utterback, a junior guard, averaged team bests of 13.2 points and 3.8 assists per game. In UVM's five-game winning streak to close the regular season, Utterback averaged 25 points per contest.

Olson, the rookie of the year last winter, averaged 12.0 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.3 blocks, while her 53.4% field-goal percentage placed her second in the conference.

Larkins, a graduate student, made 39.3% of her 3-point shot attempts to put up a 11.6-points-a-game average. Larkins reached 1,000 career points in January.

Third-seeded UVM (19-10) plays host to No. 6 Binghamton in Saturday's conference quarterfinals. Tip-off is set for 2:30 p.m. at Patrick Gym.

Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter: @aabrami5.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: UVM women's basketball: Gilwee named America East rookie of the year