Northern Arizona junior Amy Patton scored a season-high 27 points for the Lumberjacks Saturday night, but the rest of the offense struggled and NAU's defense never showed up as Eastern Washington beat the Jacks 74-56.

Another slow offensive start, 31 turnovers and another night of defensive miscues were the Jack's undoing, and the team is left to ponder what's gone so wrong over the past month.

"Fundamentally we're not playing well," NAU head coach Laurie Kelly said. "Our passing decisions are atrocious right now.

"It's not about our offense or what play we run, it's about handling the ball, being confident with a pass and playing more team basketball."

It was easy to see Saturday that the Lumberjacks (5-11 overall, 0-4 Big Sky Conference) just aren't playing well. Errant passes, missed shots and turnovers were the most obvious culprits, but it may be more difficult to explain NAU's lack of defensive presence and its sputtering offense.

There's no question the Jacks have been plagued by the injury bug -- Aubrey Davis is playing with a high ankle sprain, Tyler Stephens-Jenkins has been off the court just as much as on it and Katie Pratt still hasn't been cleared to play after breaking her arm. But that still doesn't explain why NAU's healthy players can't get back on defense or why almost the whole team is missing open shots.

"We were a good team a month ago and I don't know where we lost that," Kelly said. "Right now we're searching for that NAU team that was so close to beating Nebraska."

Patton, who's struggled scoring this season, finally had a breakout game, something that was a relief to Kelly.

"I was so glad to see Amy come out and have the game she had," Kelly said. "She really needed that, especially with her knee not feeling so good, so I was really happy she broke through that."

Though Patton went 11-for-12 from the floor and 2-for-2 from the free-throw line, the rest of the offense was ineffective.

Davis, who should be a huge presence in the post, went 1 of 5 from the floor because most of the passes sent her way were so off target she hardly touched the ball. Stephens-Jenkins scored six points and should have been an emotional force for the team, but after missing as much time as she has, her game is behind where it should be.

NAU's second-leading scorer, Amanda Frost, played only 12 minutes but was able to hit a pair of 3-point shots, including one with .97 seconds to play in the first half.

As clear as it is that the offense is struggling to find itself, the Jacks' defense was even worse. NAU was beat up the floor in transition, couldn't stop Eastern's top four scorers -- Carrie Ojeda led the Eagles with 20 points while Brianne Ryan scored 14 and Melissa Williams and Chene Cooper added 10 -- and there just seemed to be an overall defensive breakdown.

"The problem was we couldn't even get back on defense quickly enough to make any adjustments," Kelly said.

Kelly added that the staff and team alike have decided one of the major problems is an overall lack of communication.

"No one is pointing, no one is talking and if they don't talk about what's going on they're never going to be able to work together," Kelly said. "We don't have that right now and it's a huge problem we have to address."

With seven-straight losses, including three at the Rolle Activity Center where the Jacks started the season so strong, things only look to get worse. NAU is now faced with its Montana road trip where the Jacks play Montana on Thursday and Montana State on Saturday.

A month ago the team was talking about winning the conference. Now they're just hoping to get enough wins to get into the postseason.

"We're 0-4 right now and instead of looking at winning the conference, we have to look at just getting into the top six," Kelly said.

At least the team has started to figure out that there are problems.

"We're all on the same page as far as we need to have better communication and that we need to get a better effort," Kelly said.

All they have to do now is figure out how to fix things before it's too late.

Bill Harris can be reached at bharris@azdailysun.com or 556-2251.