It took a while, but Central Washington University men's basketball's JB PILLARD III found a home here in Ellensburg.

Pillard spent much of his collegiate career calling multiple schools home, but after his junior year at fellow Great Northwest Athletic Conference school Northwest Nazarene he started settling in at CWU and knows he made the right decision in becoming a Wildcat.

"This is my kind of game," he said earlier this week. "I want to get out and run."

And run they do, as the Wildcats once again are one of the highest-scoring teams in the GNAC at nearly 84 points per game.

Pillard began his collegiate career at Olympic Community College before moving on to Whatcom Community College his sophomore year. The 6-7 forward received interest from nearly every GNAC school – including Central Washington – but initially chose to move to NNU in Nampa, Idaho, to continue his career. However, his time there lacked something, and Pillard again decided to weigh his options after his junior year.

He was always aware of the Law and Justice major at Central Washington, but coming out of high school he didn't think his skills were ready for the Wildcats, having only started playing basketball his sophomore year at Juanita High School. But the talent CWU had assembled made the Wildcats too attractive to pass up.

"With Mark (McLaughlin) and Kevin (Davis) this was the team I wanted to play with for my last year," Pillard said.

Due to NCAA transfer rules Pillard sat out last season, but he felt the time off the court was helpful in his transition. It allowed him to focus on school a bit more than what he usually would be able to, and it also helped him familiarize himself with a game plan that didn't focus on Pillard being the go-to guy.

"Every other year, I've been the go-to guy," he said. "But things are different here. I'm the second option and I adjusted to that and sitting out last year as a redshirt helped me with that transition.

"I think me and Mark play well together, and look at him, he's the top scorer in the nation."

But that's not to say that Pillard is a slouch by any stretch of the imagination. The senior forward is second on the team with 14.3 points per contest and leads the school with 7.8 rebounds per game. He's finished with seven double-doubles this season, including four games in a row in mid-January. And the guy doesn't take too many bad shots. Pillard is second in the GNAC with a 63.7 percent field goal percentage, which is No. 2 all-time at CWU for a single season.

"I feel I'm the best I've ever been," Pillard said of his senior year. "That's something I've always prided myself on taking smart shots. I want be a good teammate, passing it when it's not there and not just jacking shots.

"My rebounding has been better than it's ever been this year, too. That was a focus for me coming into this year. It's more of a will or a want to get that board and I like that role."

He gets to fill that role one more time as a Wildcat as he, McLaughlin, Davis and JEFF BUDINICH round out their CWU careers with tonight's Senior Night.