MYERSTOWN - The song is called "Jump Around," and it's sung by a group called House of Pain.

Someone decided to play it on the public address system before Lancaster Catholic's boys' basketball game at Elco Tuesday night - apropos, since the Raiders' gym has been such a house of pain for the Crusaders in recent years.

A loser in its last two visits to Myerstown (and three of four), Catholic High emerged with a 70-57 Section Three victory, as senior guard Andy Fritz scored a career-high 18 points off the bench and senior center Jason Rock continued his strong play with 17 points.

Shawn Sweigart added 14 points for the section-leading Crusaders (7-0 league, 14-2 overall), who won their seventh straight game. That included five points after the Raiders, who trailed 20-4 at the beginning of the game, closed to within four late in the third quarter.

"We wanted this," said Fritz, a season-long spark for Catholic High. "We wanted this from the beginning. We knew we hadn't won up here in a while. It was our turn."

Nobody can quite figure out this hex. The Raiders' crowd is vocal _ though on Tuesday it was sparse, given the import of the girls' game in Lancaster _ and it is replete with Cameron Crazy wannabes. One student wore a batting helmet. Another dressed in a fashion that brought to mind an old Saturday Night Live character named Matt Foley, a motivational speaker played by the late Chris Farley who reportedly lived in a van down by the river.

But beyond that, it's hard to fathom.

"For some reason (the Crusaders) seem to bring the best out in us," Raiders coach Wes Soto said.

"We've probably just had off days," Fritz offered. "We didn't come to play."

They did this time, rolling to that 20-4 lead with 1:16 left in the first quarter. The Crusaders nailed four 3-pointers in that stretch, the last two by Fritz on back-to-back trips, and Rock contributed five points.

This is part of a continuing resurgence on the part of Rock, who's averaging 17 points over his last four games and 10.7 overall, second on the team to Sweigart. He's at a loss to explain it. Yes, he broke his right wrist late in football season, and had the cast removed before the second basketball scrimmage. But beyond that, he has no idea.

"The last week and a half, it's all been there for me," he said. "I've picked it up in practice. That might be why."

Fritz, meanwhile, has been fighting himself.

"We had a big discussion before the game, myself and Coach (Bill Southward)," he said. "I didn't think I was shooting well. He said, "You're playing fine.' I think I'm a little hard on myself. I came out tonight and shot the ball with confidence."

That was most notable when he went behind his back and hit a pull-up jumper off the break for Catholic High's final bucket of the first half. The spread at intermission was 31-18, Crusaders.

But the Raiders began chipping away in the third quarter, finally cutting it to 41-37 with 1:38 left in the period when Bob Bashore capped a 9-0 surge with a layup.

"At first it scared me, but I knew we'd come together as a team," Rock said.

Southward, meanwhile, was beginning to have flashbacks to his team's past struggles in the building.

"I don't know if it was in the back of my mind," he said. "It might have been in the front of my mind. I knew (the Raiders) would come, but this year we have some kids who really don't like to lose."

Sweigart scored on a drive. Reserve guard Matt Roda hit a jumper from the corner. And when the fourth quarter began, Sweigart contributed a three-point play and Rock dropped in a layup, ending the 9-0 flurry and pushing the advantage to 50-37.

The Raiders made one more run, closing to seven with 2:04 left on two foul shots by Zach Kulp (23 points). But Fritz went 6-for-6 at the line after that to help close the door.

"I think they're starting to really believe teams are going to have to play better than us to beat us," Southward said of his players. "They're not going to let anybody take anything away from them." Notes: Greg Testa added 11 for the Crusaders, who meet second-place Columbia next Tuesday in Lancaster. ... Scott Adams had 11 for Elco (3-4, 8-8), which has dropped three straight.