Karns City vs. Union.

What a basketball doubleheader it would have been ... could have been, should have been.

Wednesday night in Rimersburg, Union's Caden Rainey launched a 70-foot shot toward the rim as the buzzer sounded to end overtime of the Golden Knights' boys hoop game with Karns City.

The shot sailed through the hoop and Union came away with a 64-61 victory.

That same night in Karns City, three Union girls players fouled out, three Karns City players scored in double figures and the Gremlins rallied from an early 17-point deficit to defeat the Golden Knights, 46-43.

Two thrillers, indeed — needlessly played at separate venues.

For some reason, many District 9 schools play each other in boys and girls basketball on the same night, with each hosting one of the games.

This forces members of the student body and both communities to choose which game to attend. If you happen to be parents of a son and daughter who both play varsity basketball, you have a rather perplexing problem.

This is not to suggest that every boys and girls high school basketball matchup — in District 9 or any other district — be a doubleheader someplace.

But if the games are being played on the same night anyway and the schools are relatively close together — like Karns City and Union — then why not?

Girls-boys high school doubleheaders add to the atmosphere in the gym. Naturally, there are more people there in general. In particular, there would be more students from both schools in the stands.

There may be concerns that smaller gyms at some of these schools could not house such a crowd and people would have to be turned away.

If that's the case, at least play the boys and girls games on different nights. That way, those wishing to support both programs with a paid admission could do so.

Why make them choose?

On another subject ...

Whatever happened to the pep bands at high school basketball games?

Maybe I've just been at the wrong venues, but I've done games at Butler, Moniteau, Karns City and North Allegheny — schools that had pep bands in past years — and have seen nary a one so far this season.

Sure, these bands take up a little space, but what they add to the atmosphere in the gym more than makes up for that.

Pep bands can be difficult to organize and put together, and they do need a supervisor at the games. In this day and age, it's a little more challenging to make pep bands happen at high school venues on a regular basis.

It's funny.

I used to think those bands were too loud for a high school gym. The noise bugged me at times.

Now I miss them.

Guess you really do never know what you've got until it's gone.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle