That mouse under Marija Zinic’s right eye figured to turn blue and ugly overnight.

“She might not be able to get a date for a couple of weeks,” Kansas University women’s basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson quipped, “but I think she looks good.”

Zinic came off the bench to provide a late spark the Jayhawks needed to eclipse Northern Iowa, 59-49, in a preliminary-round WNIT game Thursday night in Allen Fieldhouse.

“She was definitely the X-factor,” KU senior Erica Hallman said of Zinic, a 6-foot-2 freshman who scored 13 points – nine in the last nine minutes when the Jayhawks pulled away.

Zinic shrugged off an elbow to the cheekbone in the first half, and the Jayhawks punished the Panthers inside down the stretch. Northern Iowa couldn’t contain both Zinic and Crystal Kemp, who also stands 6-2, with just one tall player, 6-7 Cassie Hager.

“We knew Kemp was a great player,” UNI coach Tony DiCecco said, “but (Zinic) was better than what we thought. She did a great job. She was probably the difference in the game.”

Zinic deflected the credit to Kemp.

“They double-teamed Crystal, and she made some great passes to me,” Zinic said.

Kemp, who was credited with three assists to go with her game-high 18 points and 11 rebounds, and Zinic were clearly in sync during the last nine or so minutes.

“Maria is a big target, and I like throwing the ball to her,” Kemp said.

Zinic was 5-for-10 from the field and made all three of her free-throw attempts. In fact, she has made 17 charities in a row. She was 12-for-12 at the foul line in the Jayhawks’ last game, a 72-52 loss to Kansas State in the Big 12 Tournament.

A native of Serbia & Montenegro, Zinic appears to be progressing as a college player in direct proportion to her adjustment to a foreign country and, in particular, speaking and understanding English.

Freshman teammate Ivana Catic, who also hails from Serbia & Montenegro, spent all of last year at a prep school in West Virginia and had a better grasp of the language when she arrived in Lawrence.

“We were joking with Marija the other day,” Henrickson said, “that during practice she would look to Ivana to interpret. Now she plays more comfortably and with confidence.”

As a team, the Jayhawks didn’t appear comfortable on offense in the first half, scoring only 23 points, but they held the Panthers to only 21 points and 27.3 percent shooting.

In the second half, the defense was almost as good. Northern Iowa shot 31.5 percent from the field, and the Jayhawks held an opponent under 50 points for only the second time this season. Oklahoma State, winless in the Big 12, scored 46 against the Jayhawks on Jan. 22.

“Defense, defense, defense,” said Hallman, who contributed 13 points and a game-high six assists. “We went back to basics in practice, and it paid off.”

UNI’s Hager and Tara King, who had been averaging a combined 30 points a game, finished with 11 and nine. Hager missed 10 of 14 shots, and Hager bricked nine of 12.

“We got great looks,” said Hager, who played in her last college game. “I just didn’t finish like I should have.”

After winning it’s first postseason game since 1999, Kansas will play host to Mississippi at 6 p.m. Sunday in Allen Fieldhouse. Ole Miss (16-13) earned a preliminary-round bye.

“I feel good because we haven’t been here before,” Hallman said. “I hope we keep winning and advancing.”