Arizona forward Cate Reese, left, and guard Shaina Pellington outflank Arizona State guard Tyi Skinner in the third quarter Thursday night. No. 18 UA won 84-66 to improve to 11-1.

 Kelly Presnell PHOTOS, Arizona Daily Star

Oh, how the tables have quickly turned in the Arizona State-Arizona rivalry.

Just a few short years ago, Arizona was in rebuilding mode. Now, it’s Arizona State with a new coach — Natasha Adair — and a bunch of new players.

Arizona State was the team that was ranked and made the NCAA Tournament year after year after year. Now, No. 18 Arizona is on that track and have been ranked for a school-record 56 consecutive weeks.

Regardless, it was hard to know what to expect heading into Thursday's Pac-12 opener in McKale Center. Last year in Tempe, for example, now-Wildcat Jade Loville went off for 27 points as the Sun Devils upset UA.

This time, it was a much different story. Arizona dominated from end to end on the way to an 84-66 victory in front of 9,495 fans.

Arizona (11-1, 1-0 Pac-12) next heads to the Bay Area to play Cal on Saturday and No. 2 Stanford on Monday.

Arizona State dropped to 7-5 overall and 0-1 in Pac-12 play.

“Whenever you beat your rival, it’s really good,” said UA coach Adia Barnes.

Arizona forward Maya Nnaji just beats Arizona State forward Meg Newman to a rebound Thursday.

Heading into the game, Barnes didn’t know what to expect form her team. Especially coming off the biggest win of the season against Baylor two weeks ago, followed with a road win over UT Arlington. Then, there was the Christmas break.

“We’re walking into mentally into going three games in five days. So how are we going to respond? I don’t know,” Barnes said. “I didn’t know what to expect exactly with ASU because there are so different than before when (Former ASU coach) Charlie (Turner Thorne) was there. Natasha has a totally different system with so many new players. I didn’t really know what to expect from us. I’m still learning a lot of things about our team, but I thought we’ve improved in a lot of areas.”

Arizona came out of the gate strong, taking a 16-4 lead against its overmatched rival. Esmery Martinez led the way with yet another double-double — her fourth of the season — with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Coming into the matchup she was averaging nearly a double-double with 12.7 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.

As typical in these games, it was physical down low — at one point UA’s Shaina Pellington got elbowed in the face. None of this fazed Martinez.

“I’m very strong and I can guard anybody on the court,” Martinez said. “Play(ing) defense is the most important thing that we had to do to help the team.”

Martinez also added one steal and one assist.

Pellington added 14 points, going 6 of 8 from the field. She also dished four assists and grabbed two steals. Two other Wildcats scored in double figures: Cate Reese with 13 points and Loville with an efficient 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Loville also dished four assists.

The Wildcats had 24 assists on 36 made shots, which showed Barnes that “we’re sharing the ball better. We’re more efficient.”

Arizona jumped out to the quick 26-12 lead after the first quarter and was up 42-30 at the half. The Wildcats held the Sun Devils to 36% shooting in the first 20 minutes.

“That’s been big for us just starting off strong — not being flat,” Loville said. “You saw that in the Baylor game, just being aggressive in our traps being able to run. I think when we started the game like that we’re able to maintain it throughout the game. I think that that was big for us and hopefully we can continue to do that.”

In the third quarter, the Sun Devils made only 5 of the 14 shots they attempted. With less than a minute left in the quarter, UA had its biggest lead at 28 points. At the start of the fourth quarter, Barnes put in her reserves and let them play through their mistakes to give them experience in a Pac-12 game.

UA shot 55%, while holding ASU to 38%. The Wildcats scored 14 points off 14 turnovers — all of them coming in the first three quarters.

Up next for Arizona is Cal (9-3, 0-1 Pac-12) on New Year’s Eve at 8 p.m.

Rim shots

  • This is the first time in the ASU-UA rivalry that both head coaches are Black women. Both Adair and Banres have two children — one boy and one girl each. For Barnes, it’s Matteo (7) and Capri (2). Adair’s children, Aaron and Allyssa, are older.
  • Lauren Fields grabbed four steals and had three assists with no turnovers in the win.
  • UA’s freshmen — Maya Nnaji, Paris Clark, Lemyah Hylton and Kailyn Gilbert — combined for 12 points, 6 assists and 11 rebounds.

McKale Center was built at the University of Arizona in the early 1970s. There have been updates through the years.

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Contact sports reporter PJ Brown at pjbrown@tucson.com. On Twitter: @PJBrown09