By PETER SBLENDORIO New York Daily News
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Moments before they renewed their decades-long rivalry, Rick Pitino and John Calipari met near midcourt and shared a few laughs.

But by the end of Saturday’s much-hyped slugfest in the NCAA Tournament’s second round, Calipari was the only one with a reason to smile.

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A storybook season for Pitino’s second-seeded St. John’s came to a sudden end as Calipari’s 10th-seeded Arkansas pulled off a 75-66 upset in Providence, R.I., eliminating the Red Storm from the Big Dance.

The Johnnies’ (31-5) season-long shooting deficiencies finally caught up with them against an Arkansas team (22-13) whose size proved too much to overcome. St. John’s shot just 21 of 75 (28.0%), including 2 of 22 from 3-point range, as Arkansas’ defenders clogged the paint and dared the Johnnies to beat them from outside.

RJ Luis Jr., the Big East Player of the Year, finished with nine points on 3-of-17 shooting and spent the game’s final 4:56 on the St. John’s bench.

The game was hyper-physical from the jump, which ultimately doomed St. John’s. Do-it-all guard Kadary Richmond played only 16 minutes before he fouled out. Four quick fouls limited fellow starter Simeon Wilcher to 14 minutes.

One of Arkansas’ best players, 6-11 senior Jonas Aidoo, also picked up four fouls, limiting him to 21 minutes. He finished with seven points.

Arkansas freshman Billy Richmond III helped pick up the slack with 16 points off the bench, tying a career high.

For the fourth game in a row, the Red Storm got off to an ice-cold start.

Arkansas’ size advantage loomed large as St. John’s struggled to get good looks near the basket. The Johnnies missed seven lay-ups in the first nine minutes and started a woeful 5 of 28 from the field.

Five of those missed lay-ups were by Luis, who started 0 of 7.

At one point, the Johnnies went nearly seven minutes without a field goal, a stretch in which they missed 14 shots in a row.

They trailed, 22-14, more than 12 minutes into the game.

But as they did in recent wins over Marquette, Creighton and Omaha, the Red Storm came surging back.

Luis made his first field goal with 7:37 left before halftime when he tipped in his own miss. On the next possession, an offensive rebound by Aaron Scott led to a Lefteris Liotopoulos 3-pointer.

Zuby Ejiofor scored 16 points before halftime, with seven of those points coming during an 18-6 run that put St. John’s up, 32-28.

But Arkansas ended the half on a 7-0 run, which freshman Boogie Fland capped with a driving lay-up in the waning seconds to put the Razorbacks up, 35-32.

The Johnnies shot just 23.8% before the break — their worst shooting half of the season — and needed 14 offensive rebounds to keep the score close.

St. John’s had dominated second halves all season, but Arkansas never relinquished its lead.