Matthew Hall had done it so many times he probably didn&8217;t even think about it . He went up for a layup from the left side during practice Tuesday, planted the right foot and followed through.

Only this time, something went wrong.

When the right foot went down, the knee didn&8217;t agree with him. It buckled, he fell to the floor.

Something was very wrong.

Thursday morning the diagnosis made the worst fears of Hall&8217;s and everyone&8217;s with the Cathedral basketball team true &8212; torn ACL. Out for year.

Now the Green Wave will have to come together to replace its best inside presence and most dependable scorer under the basket. The team will get a first crack at it Tuesday when the Wesson tournament kicks off.

&8220;He had come by practice (Thursday) morning, and he told us what&8217;s what,&8221; CHS head coach Peter Arnold said. &8220;It&8217;s the kind of deal where I told them nobody is going to replace Matthew because we don&8217;t have anyone of his caliber to step in. We&8217;ll try to piecemeal it. Instead of one person trying to pick up the slack, everybody will try to pick up the slack.&8221;

It&8217;s tough for the team to replace Hall, who averaged 14 points and 5.4 rebounds a game last year. His highest so far this season was his 33-point performance against Harrisonburg at the Monterey tournament, and he was the team&8217;s best rebounder.

Instead of finishing the season out strong, he&8217;ll have surgery Wednesday and hope to continue his golf game in the spring before graduating.

&8220;It&8217;s real tough,&8221; Hall said Friday. &8220;I was thinking about it later that night, and it finally dawned on me I was pretty much done. It was pretty hard to accept. I love sports. I finally just realized I was done and would have to go through surgery. I really feel bad for the team. I really felt we could do some good later in the year.&8221;

It&8217;s Hall&8217;s fire that may be tough to replace, although the team will do its best to fill in. Hall was a fierce competitor and always played hard &8212; during one point against Wesson he took an elbow right above the eye that broke the skin, but he had it bandaged quickly and went back out there.

Hall was named one of three team captains prior to the season along with Alex Middleton and Matt Goss. It&8217;s those two, Arnold said, who may be most responsible for filling that void.

&8220;They&8217;ve been doing that,&8221; Arnold said. &8220;I think in some ways Goss and Middleton are looking forward to stepping up their game more. They&8217;ll have to.

&8220;I&8217;m sure privately it&8217;s been really hard on (Hall), but he&8217;s a good kid and a tough kid. He loves to win and hates to lose. He just has to accept things that happen. Now he&8217;ll be just a mentor to some of the younger guys and be our loudest cheerleader on the bench.&8221;

Despite the loss, there may not be room for that much worry on the team&8217;s part. Players can point back to a 56-53 win over Loyd Star before Hall and other football players were released to the team, a win that may have been their best showing of the year and gave students at the Roy Garcia Gym that night reason to storm the court.

Sophomore Andy Lucas will move over to Hall&8217;s spot at center. The offense may become more lenient on Goss&8217; perimeter shooting now.

&8220;I hadn&8217;t gotten it all worked out yet,&8221; Arnold said. &8220;It might take a couple of weeks to play and sort things out. Some younger guys who weren&8217;t playing much, and some of the guys who were playing will have to step it up, too. But we&8217;re not quitting. A lot of people think we&8217;re done, but we&8217;re not.&8221;

They can&8217;t quit. If Hall maintains a presence with the team, it may be a vocal one.

&8220;It&8217;s going to be on (Goss) and Alex,&8221; Hall said. &8220;We&8217;ll be young now. Andy Lucas will have to get more points, rebounds and play more minutes. It&8217;s a good opportunity for them to get their playing time for the rest of the year and next year.&8221;

NOT AGAIN? &8212; If you&8217;re going to play a team four times in the first two months of the season, you&8217;d better do your best to get something out of it.

When Block&8217;s Lady Bears lost at the buzzer by one at Ferriday Tuesday, they sure did. It may have been the fourth loss in as many tries to Ferriday, but it maintained a pattern of shrinking the final deficit &8212; from 17 points to eight to six and finally to one.

There&8217;s still a chance for a fifth meeting this week at the Sicily Island tournament.

&8220;I feel good for my girls,&8221; Block head coach Carl Gilmore said. &8220;I knew they can play a tough, hard game and play defense when they have to. We can play down to the wire. They have no reason to hang their heads. They&8217;re a good, young group of girls.&8221;

The Lady Bears picked it up defensively down low against Ferriday freshman post Jasmine Upchurch and handled Ferriday&8217;s full-court pressure for most of the game. The Lady Trojans&8217; press worked in stretches, but Block relied on Corinthia Green and Ashley Green to handle the pressure.

Ferriday was also without Ronesha Charles, a New Orleans evacuee and solid defender who was out of town for Christmas.

&8220;We got a couple points off of it, but it wasn&8217;t effective at all,&8221; Ferriday head coach Lisa Abron said. &8220;(Ashley Green) ran right through it. I think we could have done a little better on it. We let them side-step us and run by.

&8220;But I think the girls are tired of playing people over and over. Once you beat up on somebody, they try to find ways to come and get you. We knew we had our work cut out for us.&8221;