BLOOMINGTON — All of their friends cleared their schedules to show up for the command performance, staying till closing time at Assembly Hall for the Indiana University women’s basketball Mardi Gras wrapped around the clinching of a share of the Big Ten title.

After demolishing rival Purdue 83-60 on Sunday afternoon, the Hoosiers are 26-1, winners of 14 straight games and owners of at least a share of their first league crown in 40 years.

Players were promptly rewarded with wardrobe items proclaiming their conference title and kept strands of nets cut down after taking a turn.

“Obviously, it’s a cool moment,” coach Teri Moren said of watching her players perform the snipping rope ritual in front of home fans.

The Seymour-raised program leader choked up while talking about departing guard Grace Berger and how far the Hoosiers have come in recent years.

“The work that went into something like this is not easy,” Moren said.

When Moren sliced off the last piece of one net, she waved it above her head like a lariat for the remaining members of the crowd of 17,222. That represented the first sellout in women’s program’s history.

Showmanship, pre-game, mid-game, post-game and during the game in basketball-clinic fashion, permeated the occasion.

On Senior Night, with longtime star Grace Berger heavily singled out, plus center Alyssa Geary, there were tears and cheers, standing ovations and curtain calls.

With all five starters in double figures, Mackenzie Holmes with 20 points, Berger 14 points and 10 assists, Chloe Moore-McNeil 14, Sydney Parrish 13 points and 10 rebounds and Yarden Garzon 12, the Hoosiers broke open a three-point halftime lead with a 27-12 third quarter.

This was similar to last Thursday’s 68-52 romp over Michigan at home and was IU’s nation-leading ninth victory over ranked teams, a main reason they are ranked No. 2.

Beating the Wolverines, 20-6 and ranked 12th, set a single-season record for IU wins. Holmes, with her moves left or right, has become pretty much uncoverable and scored 27 points versus Michigan.

Even if fans may expect wins every day, Holmes insisted the Hoosiers take no one for granted playing in a league that has six teams in the national top 25 as of Monday’s Associated Press poll.

“We know in the Big Ten, they (all games) can be dangerous,” Holmes said.

Much like in the Feb. 5 meeting the Hoosiers won 69-44, the Boilermakers were dangerous for a half. Purdue guard Lasha Petree scored 23 points and topped 2,000 career points. IU answered with varied contributors.

“There’s just not a lot of weaknesses on that team,” Purdue coach Katie Gearlds said.

Iowa (22-5) still lurks Sunday in the regular-season finale and could pick off a piece of the league crown, but Sunday, the Hawkeyes were an afterthought.

Hoosier fans paid tribute to a team that began winning early and has kept winning and Berger, the 6-foot guard from Louisville who has burned to win some kind of championship with IU.

A savvy playmaker with a highly regarded mid-range jump shot and superior passing and dribbling talent, Berger is likely to be a WNBA player next year. For now, and still a Hoosier, fans gave her a standing ovation when she was introduced and when she came out of the game with 2 minutes, 45 seconds on the clock.

Berger showed off her new baseball cap and T-shirt and attached a strand of net to the back of the hat.

“The hat is a little bit loose,” Berger said. “The T-shirt fits fine.”

Fans started lining up more than two hours before doors opened, and many stuck around as the team stayed on the court for an hour after the final buzzer absorbing the atmosphere.

Spectators had to know it was going to be a wild, loud experience when there was even a warmup act for the traditional Martha The Mop Lady video playing the traditional “Indiana, Our Indiana” song. Country singer Clayton Anderson of Bedford, who attended IU, sang his song “Indiana.”

Some fans displayed signs reading “The movie is not called Boilers for a reason” or “This IS Indiana basketball.”

At game’s end, the public address announcer reminded the crowd this was the 50th anniversary of Indiana women’s basketball and the 50th anniversary of the passage of federal Title IX legislation.

Appropriately, the Kool and the Gang song “Celebration” filled the air.

“Going into the game, we had a championship on our minds,” said Parrish, praising Moren, Berger, Holmes, former player Ali Patberg, now an assistant coach, and others. “They built it from the bottom.”

Parrish, a junior from Fishers, Miss Indiana Basketball in 2020, transferred to Indiana after two years at Oregon. She said when climbing the ladder to cut off a piece of the net, she thought, “I clearly made the right decision to come back here. It felt really special because this is home.”

Berger hungered for a defining career win, and although the Hoosiers still face Big Ten tournament play and the NCAA playoffs, walking off the court in her last regular-season home game constituted memorable steps.

“To go out cutting down the nets, you couldn’t go out better than that,” Berger said, grinning out from under her slightly oversized champions cap.