Semi-rapid reaction: Pitt 75, Yale 70

Pitt moved to 4-1 on the season with a 75-70 victory against Yale Tuesday at the Petersen Events Center. A five-point win against an Ivy League team won't exactly make some uneasy Panthers fans feel better, but Yale's a pretty damn good team from a conference that's stronger than many give it credit for.

But let's get going on the Pitt angle in all of this...

Turning point: My game story was centered around him, but Cam Johnson's 3-pointers on three-consecutive possessions gave Pitt some breathing room it really needed in the final six minutes with Yale making a charge. It didn't decide the game, as Yale got within three with about 50 seconds left, but it was as pivotal a sequence as there was.

Game ball: I'm to the point where I'll probably just copy and paste Mike Young's name in this spot. There'll be games where I'll surely be wrong, like when Rozelle Nix explodes for 30 and 15 in a win at Cameron Indoor Stadium, but I'll take that chance. Anyhow, Young had 24 points and 10 rebounds tonight and was a rebound shy from finishing with a double-double in the first half alone. He's quite good.

Notable stat: 5, as in five WPIAL players on the court at one time tonight. The math is a little inflated on this since I included Young, who only played one season of high school ball in Western PA, but there was also Johnson, Ryan Luther, Sheldon Jeter and Yale's Anthony Dallier, who went to North Allegheny. Local high school hoops gets knocked for not having a high volume of top prospects, which is largely true, but it's something worth noting nonetheless. I'll probably write something again when Pitt plays Virginia Tech and Devin Wilson wanders his way on the court. Be forewarned.

What it means: Johnson's performance was certainly encouraging, perhaps an indication that he's ready to become the team's oft-discussed third scorer. With Artis a threat to penetrate and Young an interior threat to keep defenses honest, Johnson's prowess from deep becomes that much more intriguing. He showcased it tonight, finishing with 15 points and making four of his five attempts from deep (the rest of the team went one of 10). Johnson's emergence, at least offensively, is needed because Pitt has few reliable options beyond him. That lack of depth was apparent tonight, with the Panthers' four non-starters combining for only 44 minutes of a possible 200 (and scoring only seven points, four of which came from Luther).

Defensively, there were some signs of progress, as they held Yale to 40.3 percent shooting and just a shade over one point per possession while preventing the kind of constant penetration they readily gave up in the first four games. They did, however, allow Yale to shoot 40.7 percent from deep, making 11 of its 27 3s. As Pitt adjusts to a new switching defense under Stallings, vacillating between that and a 3-2 zone, these sort of problems aren't unheard of. It becomes a game of whack-a-mole -- once you feel like you've solved one problem in a game, another appears.

What's next: A Friday date with Morehead State. The Eagles are 2-2, with losses in their past two games to Marshall and Evansville. More notably, their coach, Sean Woods, was suspended Tuesday while the school conducts an investigation stemming from complaints about his behavior.

Notable quotables: "You could see it on film, how good they were. They beat Washington. We don't know anything about Washington -- they could be really good or really bad -- but we knew Yale was going to be a good team just from watching them." - Mike Young on Yale

"We believe anybody can get going at any moment. I don't think it's anything where we need to change anything. We just need to get better at what we're doing. Whoever is open is going to shoot and we're going to play for each other. That's just how it's going to go." - Cam Johnson on asserting himself as a third scorer

"It's very hard to limit those guys. We tried to play a little zone in the second half and tried to take the ball out of their hands somewhat, but they found some openings. We tried to pack it in and the kid comes off the bench and makes three 3s. That was just an opportune moment for him." - Yale coach James Jones on Mike Young and Jamel Artis

"We just were taking the first...I don't even know if you would call it a shot; just the first opportunity to get it on goal. I felt like we were playing hockey, just trying to get it on goal. Taking off-balance shots, not playing through contact, going away from contact off one leg. It was like, golly, what's this? We have to learn what works for us and what doesn't." - Kevin Stallings on Pitt's early offensive struggles

"They get confused every once in a while between freedom and confidence and lack of discretion. There's a fine line in there. We need to be aggressive, we need to be confident, but I don't want them shooting at the basket with one eye on them and one eye on me." - Stallings on shot selection

"Certain guys have green lights, certain guys have yellow lights and we won't talk about red lights. If you've got a green light, I don't say much to you. Cam's light is pretty green. There are certain types of shots Cam should take. Driving-across-the-lane, one-legged, going-away-from-the-goal ones aren't. He took a couple of those. But squared-up 3s, even if they're deep because he has range, those are good shots." - Stallings

Craig Meyer: cmeyer@post-gazette.com and Twitter @CraigMeyerPG