Wheaton Academy coach Andy Euler knows his boys basketball team isn’t the tallest in the state, so to make up for the lack of height he gets his players in the best physical condition they can be in.

He has his players push the ball up the court at every chance, and Wednesday’s nonconference game against Montini was no different. The Warriors beat the Broncos 57-46 in Lombard.

“I feel we are in better condition than whoever we face in our games,” Euler said. “We need to be in better condition and in better shape than our opponents so we can run.”

Wheaton Academy’s Jeremy Parker, who scored a game-high 14 points, says it helps having Euler stay on them about their conditioning.

“Coach keeps us conditioned so we can play our style of ball. We are in terrific shape,” Parker said.

The Broncos (10-17) came out flat and turned the ball over and missed open looks as they fell behind 10-5 after the first quarter.

Wheaton Academy’s largest lead of the game was 13 points, and Montini could not cut the lead any closer than 5 points in the entire second half.

“I was disappointed with how we started in the first couple of minutes in the game,” Montini coach Tom Sloan said. “We dug ourselves a hole and we can’t do that against a good team. Those 5 points in the first quarter was the lead they had the rest of the game. We can’t come out in a lull against an experienced team like Wheaton.”

Euler said he was not happy with the way his team was playing in the first half on both ends of the court.

The Warriors rushed shots on offense and didn’t play their men tight on defense. Those two problem areas were corrected in the second half.

“I felt our ‘D’ tightened up in the second half and that allowed us to get in transition,” Euler said. “We stopped their penetration into the lane and that helped us. Our defense was more disciplined. We were also more patient in the second half with running our offense and getting open looks and lay-ups.”

John Tillery and Axel Cerny pitched in with 13 and 10 points, respectively, in the win.

Dex Jones and Pete Cappetta scored 12 and 11 points for the Broncos.

Wheaton Academy started the season 0-5 but has won 16 of its last 22 games to improve to 16-11.