Although they tried valiantly, a two-goal deficit and the loss of their best defender proved to be too much for the Spartans to overcome as they fell, 2-1, to the Golden Grizzlies on Saturday afternoon at Old College Field.

“I’m extremely proud,” MSU head coach Joe Baum said. “I thought we gave 110 percent effort here today and I thought to play with 10 and turn the second half into the half it was, was a great, great effort by Michigan State and we came up a bit short.”

The game marks Oakland’s first win in an NCAA Tournament game in Division I.

“We didn’t come up here thinking it was any bigger (of a) game than Michigan State is always, which is a big game,” Oakland head coach Gary Parsons said. “We felt like we had a 50-50 chance in this one. We usually have pretty good luck with these guys.”

The Grizzlies, the Summit League champions, couldn’t get anything going for much of the first half, but that all changed at the 38:25 mark when Oakland’s Piotr Nowak scored on the team’s first shot of the game off a breakaway from the right side.

Oakland followed that up by hitting the crossbar twice in the next two minutes.

Parsons credited the quick turnaround to the play of Michael Reyes, who came off the bench and assisted on the goal.

“Mike came into the game about five minutes prior to that and came in for the last 15, and as soon as he got on the field he created that instant energy for us,” Parsons said. “It spread around to the team and we just got it cookin’ there.”

But the biggest play of the game came with less than a minute to play in the first half.

With MSU attempting a corner kick, referee Brent Sorg whistled senior defender Rauwshan McKenzie and sent him off with a red card for allegedly striking an Oakland player. The card meant MSU had to play the rest of the game with 10 men.

The explanation was the official saw McKenzie punch the player in the head. Baum vigorously defended McKenzie, one of the team’s captains, after the game.

“Rauwshan said that kid kind of pushed him and he pushed him back and he got red carded,” Baum said. “Rauwshan McKenzie has played for me for four years – he’s never, ever been red carded in his life. I think he’s taken one yellow card in four years. I’ve been around that young man day-in and day-out for four years and have never seen him lose his temper, never seen him do anything that I thought was negative or try to hurt anybody. I’m amazed.”

Oakland rode the momentum into the second half, taking a 2-0 lead 57 seconds into the half on a goal that may have been knocked in on a hand ball by Stefan St. Louis.

“I think when we walked out for the second half we were in a good mental frame,” Baum said. “That was kind of an unusual goal they got there, but stuff happens.”

Down not only two goals but down a man as well, the Spartans had a tall task on their hands to make a comeback.

MSU took a big step on the comeback trail when it was awarded a penalty kick. Junior forward Doug DeMartin’s shot was stopped by Oakland goalkeeper Steve Clark, but he could not control the rebound, which DeMartin deposited into the net.

Parsons said he knew the Spartans would bring pressure and that MSU was “going to go hells bells going forward.”

That pressure did come toward the end, but when a free kick from senior forward Kenzo Webster from outside the box sailed over the net with less than 30 seconds to go, it essentially spelled the end of MSU’s season.

“We put the pressure on them,” DeMartin said. “We got one late and had a couple more chances and that’s all you can do, I guess, when you get down 2-0. We battled back and that’s a good thing.”

The Spartans end the season with an 11-6-4 record. Oakland will move on.