In a 2020 story, ESPN journalist Aishwarya Kumar described the young Mangakahia as "a daredevil", regularly climbing a tall pole in the family's backyard and competing in various sports and games alongside her brothers.

Mangakahia quickly took to the sport, with Kumar noting that "Even at age 8, when she was the smallest girl on the team, she'd run and pass the ball like a ninja, nimble and fast."

She tied her career high with 44 points against Florida State on 28 February and had a season-high 15 assists against Niagara on 17 December.

[3] In her first two seasons at Syracuse, Mangakahia broke the school's career record for assists and joined the team's 1,000-point club.

[5] For the 2021–22 season, Mangakahia moved to Russia to play for Dynamo Moscow of the Russian Women's Premier League.

[5] Mangakahia returned to the Northside Wizards for the 2022 NBL1 North season and averaged 27.3 points, 6.6 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 3.9 steals in 20 games.

[5] After a one-game stint with the Northside Wizards on 25 March 2023,[18] Mangakahia moved to France where she played five games for Toulouse Métropole Basket to finish the 2022–23 season.

[5] On 5 June 2023, Mangakahia announced her retirement after being diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer which had spread into other areas of her body.

She would then go on to represent the Gems at the Under-19 World Championship in Lithuania the following year, where they finished in third place and took home the bronze medal.

In April 2019, coming off a breakout season at Syracuse, Mangakahia was named to the Opals' preliminary roster for the 2020 Summer Olympics, but was forced to bow out due to a cancer diagnosis.

[22][23] In May 2021, she missed the women's team roster ahead of the Tokyo Olympics,[24] which was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.