Gonzaga opened its 2026-27 season with more than just a 78-72 win over Purdue in Las Vegas. The Bulldogs showed they can survive a tough night, absorb a late push and still find enough offense from multiple places to finish the job.
That matters for a team entering its first year in the rebuilt Pac-12. Gonzaga arrived with a new conference, a reshaped roster and the same old expectations that have followed Mark Few’s program for years. The standard hasn’t changed: championships are still the goal.
Monday’s game offered an early glimpse of how this group might get there.
Davis Fogle was the headliner, finishing with a career-high 22 points and giving Gonzaga the scoring punch it needed against a disciplined Purdue team. The numbers tell the story of a player who kept working even when the jumper wasn’t cooperating. Fogle hit six of 18 shots from the floor but went 9 for 10 at the line, finding ways to score without needing a hot shooting night.
That kind of production can be the difference in close games. When defenses take away clean looks, Gonzaga now has a scorer who can get downhill, draw contact and still put points on the board.
Fogle also came through when the pressure was highest. After Purdue trimmed the lead to 68-66 with just over three minutes left, he answered with a layup to give the Bulldogs some breathing room. Gonzaga still had to close it out with defense, but its leading scorer delivered at the moment the game tightened.
He wasn’t doing it alone.
Xaivian Lee scored 18 points, Izan Almansa added 11 and Braden Huff chipped in 10. Those four combined for 61 of Gonzaga’s 78 points, a spread that gives Few several ways to shape the offense as the season unfolds.
Lee and Almansa were especially important during the stretch when Gonzaga separated in the second half. The Bulldogs put together a 15-6 run that helped them build a 10-point cushion before Purdue fought back again. Even so, Gonzaga had already shown it could generate offense from more than one source.
Purdue made the Bulldogs work for every inch. Daniel Jacobsen was excellent inside, scoring 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting and grabbing seven rebounds. The Boilermakers also clawed back late, cutting the margin to two in the second half and giving Gonzaga a real test in the closing minutes.
But Purdue missed four of its final five field-goal attempts, and Gonzaga held on.
The win also carried a small piece of history with it: Gonzaga had never beaten Purdue before Monday.
That doesn’t decide anything about the rest of the season, but it adds some weight to an opening-night result that already said plenty. Gonzaga still has room to clean things up, especially on the offensive end, and there will be nights when late-game execution has to be sharper. But this was a strong sign that the Bulldogs have enough scoring balance and enough poise to beat a quality opponent even when the game gets messy.
For a team hoping its move into the Pac-12 won’t alter its national ambitions, that’s a good place to start.
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