After leading St. Patrick high school to the state title in their category and earning individual awards, including being on the honor roll, Mekongo Mbala committed in October 2005 to La Salle University to play in the Atlantic 10 Conference of the Division I (NCAA).
He was one of the many freshmen in coach John Giannini's recruiting class including St Patrick teammate and friend Ruben Guillandeaux.
[5] As part of one of the weakest programs of the conference (with a Conference tournament second round in 2008 as best result in 4 years) Mekongo Mbala's exposure on the court had been limited, he used the Eurobasket.com Summer League to show his skills and was selected to New York City All Tournament First Team[6] He signed his first professional contract in October 2010, with Hungarian side Factum Sport Debrecen of the NB I/A.
[7] Following a good first pro season, where he had 19.3 points and 8.2 rebounds on average in 25 games, he moved to the stronger Liga Española de Baloncesto, the Spanish second division, where he joined Grupo Iruña Navarra in July 2011.
They also lost the third-place playoff against Tunisia that would have qualified them for the 2010 FIBA World Championship, he grabbed 8 rebounds and scored 7 free throws but also committed 4 turnovers and missed his 7 shots in the field.