Ta’Shaun Beatty’s Career Night Propels Monroe Central Past Wapahani 63-50

Ta’Shaun Beatty dominated the paint and the scoreboard, finishing with a career-high 29 points and an unofficial 20 rebounds as the Monroe Central Golden Bears beat Wapahani 63-50 in Parker City on Friday, Feb. 13. The win was Monroe Central’s first over Wapahani since 2022 and snapped a tight game open in the fourth quarter.

Beatty’s night extended a season-long tear: it was his eighth consecutive double-double, his 13th of the season and his fourth 20-20 performance this year. The senior, listed as the state’s leading rebounder at 13.6 rebounds per game, said succinctly of his approach, "I just play. Like coach said, just go out there, have fun and play ball. I mean, it's my senior year, so that's all I got. Last year of high school basketball, so they just told me to go out there and have fun, and that's what we did, came out with a 'W' like we're supposed to."

Monroe Central and Wapahani traded blows early. The game was tied 12-12 after the first quarter, and the Golden Bears led 24-22 at halftime after Beatty knocked down a layup with less than five seconds remaining in the second quarter. Through three quarters the margin never exceeded five points and the lead changed hands five times, with one point separating the teams late in the third.

A late third-quarter sequence swung momentum. Beatty scored off an offensive rebound and sophomore Luke Morgan followed with a buzzer jumper along the right baseline, described as a fadeaway in some accounts, that gave Monroe Central a five-point edge entering the fourth. Beatty opened the fourth with a three-point play, and the Golden Bears pulled away from there.

Luke Morgan finished with 13 points and made all six of his free throws. Jackson Konkle provided a fourth-quarter lift with a three-point play, and two free throws from Morgan later pushed the margin to 11. Wapahani mounted a response when Isaac Andrews and Carter Bell hit free throws to make it 46-40, but Monroe Central closed the gap decisively in the final period.

Role players stepped up as well. Isom scored 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting and grabbed six rebounds in a night that outpaced his 2.1 points-per-game average; Isom credited his teammates, saying, "My teammates passed me the ball. They were just feeding me when I was open. And they were giving me the encouragement on the bench, keeping my head up."

Monroe Central coach Brian Klein highlighted end-of-quarter execution as a key to the win: "That's one of the things we've worked on this year is, we get the ball with 30 seconds to go, we want to be the last guy to shoot it. It may not go in, but those are, at any level, such momentum builders. Those were huge." Wapahani’s sideline lamented missed opportunities; coach Jeff Andrews summed up the night bluntly: "It was really our lack of toughness, mentally and physically. And it wasn't just the fourth quarter, it was most of the game."

The victory moved Monroe Central, listed as 14-4 in local coverage, further into conference contention while underscoring Beatty’s impact as a two-sport senior (MaxPreps lists him as "Tashaun" on a profile that also notes baseball duties and the bio line Mark 9:23). Social reaction on The Star Press Facebook post reflected the local buzz, with 224 reactions, 18 comments and 35 shares and fans posting lines such as "Bulldozer Beatty" and "Way to go Ta’Shaun!