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Dexter to battle tough foe without experience, depth of Booker
Monday, January 20, 2025
Dexter High School junior forward Gibson Booker (in sweats) congratulates Bearcat teammate Devin Turnbo during a timeout in a recent game at Bernie High School.
Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com
The task of beating Puxico in varsity boy’s basketball is a daunting one, and it becomes that much more difficult for Indian opponents if they aren’t at full strength.
Dexter (7-8) will host the Class 2 No. 3-ranked team on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Bearcat Event Center, and as has been the case for most of this season, Bearcat junior shooter Gibson Booker will not be available.
The 6-foot-2 athlete has been out for most of this season with an injury to his right knee, and the recent prognosis wasn’t great.
“He got a shot (recently),” veteran Dexter coach Chad Allen said of Booker. “He’s in a little bit more pain right now. That shot is supposed to help heal his injury.
Booker’s injury “is in the patella tendon,” according to Allen. The coach said, “It is looking like he’s probably going to be out for most of the year.”
Allen added that even if the knee healed, “it would be late,” and Booker would have to rehabilitate the injury, as well as get into physical condition.
With Booker being out, that shortens the length that the Bearcats had defensively, as well as hurts Allen’s group offensively from a perimeter shooting standpoint.
“He’s a long kid and has a lot of length,” Allen said. “He shoots it really well and he can rebound well for us.
“He just does a lot of things.”
In the frontcourt, Dexter has relied heavily on junior Landon Annesser and Devin Turnbo for the rebounding.
Annesser provides pure strength that he carried over from the highly successful Bearcat football program, which Turnbo has, as well. However, Turnbo is often the most athletic person on the court, so despite his 6-foot frame, he is very effective on the glass, particularly at the offensive end.
“We tell our guys to fly around,” Allen said of his team’s rebounding philosophy. “When we are standing and watching and being spectators, we’re not going to be very good.”
On the perimeter, the Bearcats have gotten a very strong senior season out of Tucker Temples.
Temples canned six 3-pointers in a 70-68 overtime loss to Bernie recently. However, it would have been beneficial to have the experience and depth that Booker would have provided.
“Gibson’s been bothered by injuries every year,” Allen said. “Hopefully, he’ll get this straightened out and be ready to have a healthy senior year (in 2025-26).
“You definitely miss a guy like that.”
Booker was also a key contributor to the success of the Dexter baseball program last spring.
He played both right field, as well as pitched for the Bearcats, who won 14 games, which was the most in 12 springs for the program.
Puxico (13-1) has won eight consecutive games, including a 64-60 overtime win against the Bearcats last month in the championship game of the annual Bloomfield Christmas Tournament.
“Dexter made (winning) extremely difficult, obviously,” fourth-year Indian coach Bryant Fernetti told Semoball.com after the tournament victory. “They’re a great team.”