Northwest Notes July 15, 2011

| July 15, 2011 9:00 PM

Stars Blue third at

96-team AAU tourney

Brooke Litalien of Post Falls, and Sidney Williams and Erin Legel of Coeur d'Alene helped the Spokane Stars Blue finish third out of 96 teams at the Mid-Summer Nights Magic AAU girls basketball tournament July 10-13 in Seattle.

The previous week, the Stars Blue went 3-2 in their 32-team pod at the 108-team End of the Trail tournament July 6-9 in Oregon City, Ore.

At Seattle, the Stars Blue beat the Alaska Blizzards (Anchorage) 49-22, beat the Bozeman Stars 68-65 in double overtime, beat the Cascade Waves (Tacoma), lost to the eventual champion Northwest Blazers Orange 54-42, then beat the Northwest Blazers Black 63-44 in the third-place game.

At Oregon City, the Stars Blue beat the L.A. Nets Pressure 64-37, beat the North Idaho Elite 55-33, lost to the Wiggins Waves (San Diego) 66-42, beat the Cal Sparks 17U (Los Angeles) 68-52, and lost to Nor Cal Elite (Sacramento) 47-38.

The Blazers Orange took second overall, losing to Team Concept (Oregon) in the title game.

Next up for the Stars teams is the Summer Heat tournament July 22-23 at The Warehouse in Spokane.

Shock place pair

on injured reserve

SPOKANE - The Spokane Shock have placed offensive lineman Paluani Ma Sun and wide receiver Chas Gessner on the injured reserve list, and signed offensive lineman Laupepa Letuli and defensive lineman Mel Purcell.

Letuli (6-4, 325 pounds) finished his collegiate career at the University of Hawaii in 2010. As a Warrior, Letuli was a three-year starter and earned All-Western Athletic Conference honors as a senior.

Purcell (6-5, 275) also played at Hawaii where he racked up 208 tackles and 19 sacks in his four-year career with the Warriors. In his senior season, he led all WAC defensive linemen with 60 tackles and was selected first-team All-WAC.

Purcell was a sixth-round draft choice by the Cleveland Browns in 2007, and earned a spot on the Browns' practice squad for the first 16 weeks of the season before being activated for the final game of the season against the San Francisco 49ers. Purcell earned a spot on Cleveland's practice squad in 2009, but was released after the season.

Spokane (8-8) hosts the San Jose SaberCats (7-9) on Saturday at 7 p.m.