BLOOMINGTON — The scene in Assembly Hall at recent home games has mimicked old-style reception at big-arena rock concerts with fans firing up cellphone flashlights in the darkness during player introductions.

It used to be cigarette lighters illuminating the stands for the Indiana women’s basketball players with accompanying roars. Are these rock stars wearing red and white?

“I don’t know if we’re rock stars just yet,” said guard Sydney Parrish, “but it’s cool to see a flood of red coming in.”

As in fans dressed in IU colors up to 90 minutes before tip-off. Lately, there have been more of them cheering a team that after Sunday’s 91-68 victory over Rutgers is 20-1, the best start to a Hoosier season ever and the school’s eighth straight 20-win year.

There were 8,598 fans in the house Sunday, days after a regular-season game record 10,455 spectators appeared for a 78-65 triumph over then-No. 2 Ohio State.

Now leading the Big Ten standings, this team, as of Monday, was ranked No. 4 in the country in the weekly Associated Poll top 25 listings.

There are no gimmes on the Hoosiers’ schedule with the Big Ten the toughest women’s league in the nation. This week, there are five league clubs in the top 18. Last week, six were ranked.

Iowa sixth, Maryland eighth, Ohio State 10th and Michigan 18th are also in there. Illinois is 26th in votes, and now, Purdue is getting some. Except for Wednesday night’s game at Minnesota, all IU’s remaining games are against those teams.

Coach Teri Moren said the Hoosiers have the toughest schedule left among teams in contention. Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff recently said in Bloomington the league is as tough as he has ever seen it top to bottom. The Indiana goal from the start has been to win the conference crown.

Whether or not center Mackenzie Holmes and guard Grace Berger are rock stars, they are basketball stars. The 6-foot-3 Holmes from Gorham, Maine, is one of the finest low-post players in the land.

After four straight games of topping 25 points, Holmes scored 21 against Rutgers. Opposing teams know an IU pass inside to Holmes is money. She can spin and lay the ball in equally well with either hand and has ambidextrous feet, as well. No opponent knows which way Holmes will turn, and no one can stop her moves.

The fan roars are noticed and heeded and are energized by. The building was like being inside an airplane hangar against Ohio State.

“You couldn’t even hear whistles sometimes,” Holmes said of the game versus the Buckeyes. “Ohio State couldn’t even call a play.”

What makes Holmes so effective is the all-around perimeter attack spearheaded by Parrish (12 points against Ohio State, 17 versus Rutgers), freshman Yarden Garzon (20 against Ohio State, 14 against Rutgers) and others. It is long past time when the three was a novelty shot, and the Holmes in-close maneuver is hoops at its purest. But for basketball fans, the 3-point jumper from another area code still jolts the system, as if pouring a shot of whiskey down the gullet. They react viscerally, almost like a sudden earthquake registered on the Richter scale.

Each such shot is an injection of adrenaline, a play boosting teammates, reminding everyone they maximized the trip downcourt. IU made 61.1% of its threes against Rutgers, and Garzon, a native of Israel, hit four of them in each game last week.

“When someone hits a shot, everyone gets excited,” Garzon said of the response to the long missiles.

Berger is the queen of the mid-range jumper and the steadying hand on the throttle of the Hoosier offense. A knee injury sidelined her temporarily earlier this season, but her 21 points against the Scarlet Knights, including a couple of rare 3-pointers, showed she is rolling once more. Moren called it “Grace Berger Day.”

Technically, it was National Girls and Women Sports Day in the house, the closest home game to the actual Feb. 1 observance day, as well as the year of the 50th anniversary of the passage of Title IX.

Moren, weaned on Seymour High School and Purdue University basketball, said she coaches young women particularly deserving of attention in celebrating Title IX and the female sports day.

Calling the players “talented, smart women who represent Indiana University basketball,” Moren said, “They always handle themselves in such a good way.”

As well as handling all comers on the court to the tune of 20-1 so far.

Lew Freedman writes sports columns for The Tribune. Send comments to [email protected].