The Iron and senior Kenna Malinowski aim to “make a splash” in the Regional championship against Rock Island after cruising past United Township 65-27 in the IHSA 4A girls basketball postseason opener.

The Ironmen, head coach Mr. Dave Feeney said, have found their “groove” as they chase a fourth-straight Regional title, playing at a new “level of consistency.”

Malinowski, Community’s leading scorer with 350 points and a 50.9 shooting percentage, has been key to that consistency. The senior has drained 85 three-pointers—totaling 255 points—this season, tying Carthage’s Giana Rawlings for the program’s single-season three-point record.

Before exiting midway through the third quarter against United Township, Malinowski caught fire from beyond the arc, sinking four triples.

Her sharpshooting has been a season-long theme, averaging 2.7 threes per game at a 32.7% clip.

The milestone came as a surprise—neither Malinowski nor Feeney realized the senior had tied the record until a fan pointed it out after the contest.

“We kind of announced it to the team [after the game],” Feeney said. “To celebrate Kenna and the team because that’s a team achievement.”

Feeney’s squad thrives on an inside-out system that makes records like Malinowski’s possible, with the team dishing out 409 assists this season.

“Everybody [is] doing their part and fulfilling their role,” Feeney said, “and they’ve done that to a record-setting degree.”

That teamwork will be tested in the hostile environment of Regional-host Rock Island.

Though Community rolled past Rock Island 54-26 earlier this season, Feeney isn’t expecting the same Rocks team to show up after Rock Island’s 56-51 upset win over Moline in the Regional opener—a team they lost to twice earlier this year.

“I don’t think it’ll matter to them that they’ve lost to us,” Feeney said. “I think they believe they can avenge those things.”

But the Iron aren’t the same team they were in November, either.

“Truth be told,” Feeney said, “I think at the start of the season, [the team] doubted how we’d be without last year’s seniors.”

That doubt showed in a 44-41 midseason loss to Peoria Richwoods, when Feeney felt they were a “fake 16-2 team.”

“I didn’t mean we weren’t legitimately 16-2, but I meant they didn’t really believe it,” he said. “I didn’t feel like we went to Richwoods expecting good things to happen.”

But that doubt has all faded down the stretch. Feeney, now the program’s all-time winningest coach, sees the team hitting its stride in a season that began with “a lot of unknowns.”

As the team has grown, they’ve found their identity, working to “fit [their] niche” in a proven system, a process, Feeney said, that has been “a different kind of fun” than last season.

“It has been incredibly rewarding,” Feeney said, watching the roster embrace their roles. And its been the Ironmen’s “formula for success,” as everything has been falling into place on the way to a 26-6 record.

The Ironmen take on 14-15 Rock Island for the Regional title at 6 p.m., with the winner advancing to face Minooka or Pekin in the Sectional opener on Feb. 25.