Best Friends Reunited at NSU

Mangela Ngandjui remembers well the day she met Jalynn Holmes at Riverdale Baptist School in the summer of 2015.

“I was looking to transfer that summer and I had a workout at their gym,” said Ngandjui, who attended Bishop McNamara previously. “Jalynn was the first person who came up and spoke to me.”

After she transferred to Riverdale, Ngandjui, then entering her senior high school season, and Holmes, entering her junior year, became fast friends. They were running partners on the track, logging plenty of miles side by side during the team’s preseason conditioning. 

The kinship extended to the team’s many road trips that year. But it was a particular incident on a team excursion to the Virgin Islands that cemented the friendship.

“I had my makeup bag stolen by a local person from the islands and I was so upset,” Holmes said. “Mangela was interrogating everyone, sticking up for me, trying to find out who did it.”

The bag’s whereabouts were never discovered, but something else was – a lasting friendship.

The pair became inseparable. It didn’t hurt that when Holmes’ family moved from Waldorf, Maryland, to Upper Marlboro, they settled only five minutes away from Ngandjui’s home. You could often find one at the other’s house during holidays. Not to mention the regular shopping trips, visits to restaurants, impromptu photo sessions – anything under the sun.

The stories the two tell are endless. One particular fast food stop on a basketball trip stands out.

“Everyone on the team wanted McDonald’s except me, ‘Mango’ and one other person. We wanted Chick-fil-A,” Holmes said. “There was one up the road from the McDonald’s.”

Knowing their no-nonsense coach would leave them if they were late returning to the team bus, the trio made a dash for it. The quest for chicken sandwiches and waffle fries required a steep uphill climb, though.

“When we were coming back and had to go down that hill, our teammate tripped and rolled all the way down,” Holmes continued.

“…And then Jalynn was laughing so hard at her, that she fell down the hill right after her,” Ngandjui finished.

Their food was lost and clothes needed changing, but another lasting memory had been made.

“Now, it’s like we finish each other’s sentences,” Nganjdui said.

On the court, Riverdale Baptist was a powerhouse thanks in no part to the sharp shooting of Holmes and toughness of Ngandjui. The team went 39-3 and won the National Association of Christian Athletes tournament, eventually finishing second at the Dick’s National Championship tournament at Madison Square Garden.

Ngandjui had several Division I college suitors, but chose UNC Greensboro over Seton Hall. 

“I had never really lived anywhere outside of Maryland, so I wanted to get away,” she explained. 

Ngandjui and Holmes kept in touch following high school. Ngandjui was especially helpful to Holmes during their first year apart – the latter’s senior year in high school and the former’s freshman year in college.

“I would tell her all the ins and outs of what college was like,” Ngandjui said.

“She’s like a big sister to me,” Holmes said. “She would give me advice on the recruiting process and tell me what the college game was like.”

Ngandjui was a regular contributor over her three years at UNCG. She played in 77 games there, and her scoring increased each year: from 3.0 points per game as a freshman, to 4.4 as a sophomore and 5.0 as a junior.

Wanting to stay closer to home, Holmes settled on in-state program Towson following her senior year at Riverdale. She played in 59 games and averaged better than 3.0 points per game in her first two years with the Tigers of the CAA.

And that’s where the pair’s story could have ended. But a funny thing happened during the 2018-19 school year when Holmes was a sophomore and Ngandjui a junior – hundreds of miles apart, both started to realize that their initial college choice wasn’t the best for them. Both decided to transfer. 

“We talked to each other on the phone about what we were looking for in a new school, just trying to be supportive,” Holmes said. “But we never really got into specifics about trying to play together, or where the other was going.”

Ngandjui, who was homesick and wanted to be closer to Maryland, chose NSU in the spring of 2019.

“I liked Coach Vickers and how he sold the program,” Ngandjui said. “And when I visited NSU, it felt like family.”

Holmes had a harder time initially finding the right fit in a transfer school. But former All-MEAC NSU men’s basketball player Steven Whitley, an acquaintance of Holmes, put in a word for her with Vickers. Unaware of her ex-teammate Ngandjui’s college choice, Holmes gave the Spartans a look.

“I was talking to Jalynn on the phone and she was interested in what the roster was going to look like,” Vickers said. “That’s when I told her we already had other transfers who would be coming in with her.”

“When he told me he had a transfer from UNCG and told me it was Mangela Ngandjui, I couldn’t believe it,” Holmes said. “I was so happy.”

Fate had intervened, and just like that, the two were reunited. 

Said Holmes: “’Mango’ was my best friend in high school. With her being here, it was like God telling me this was the place for me.”

The pair had to sit out the 2019-20 season per NCAA transfer rules as the Spartans enjoyed a 19-11 regular season with a senior-laden team. Now, Holmes and Ngandjui are two of the centerpieces of a new-look Spartans’ roster that features a total of nine newcomers, six of whom are transfers. Holmes is tied for the MEAC scoring lead so far, at 17.0 points per game. Ngandjui missed the season’s first two games, but made her debut with 10 points and seven rebounds at Liberty.

They hadn’t played together in an organized game in nearly five years, but their on-court chemistry didn’t suffer.

“I know the spots where she likes to get the ball,” Ngandjui said. 

“And when she shoots, I know where it’s gonna come off the rim,” Holmes chimed in.

Is Holmes implying her teammate misses a lot?

“See how she does me?” Ngandjui said with a laugh.

All joking aside, the two are keys to the Spartans’ continued success this year.

“Their experience is a big thing for us,” Vickers said. “They played on some pretty good teams before they transferred. And they are two of our better athletes.”

Seeing the two interact together off the court, their similarities are obvious. Gregarious, articulate, playful, yet also ambitious. Holmes is a mass communications major who will graduate in 2021. She once aspired to be a sports broadcaster, but is rethinking how she can promote her own brand using her degree.  Ngandjui just finished her bachelor’s degree in management information systems and will take graduate courses in computer science this spring.

“We’re always strategizing about our brands. We want to launch a YouTube channel soon,” Holmes said, adding that trips to Chicago and Los Angeles are also in the works for the two.

What then?

Said Ngandjui: “We plan to take over the world.”