Stewart intends to play despite family concerns

USC senior guard Lodrick Stewart received a double dose of bad news Monday when he learned that his great-grandfather had died and his mother was hospitalized in Mississippi because of a nervous breakdown.

Nevertheless, Stewart returned to practice Tuesday and said he would play tonight against UCLA at Pauley Pavilion.

“I look at it as the only way out for my family, me playing basketball,” Stewart said. “I’m going to be running off adrenaline and heart and desire to win that game.”

Stewart said he had been unable to reach his mother, Lisa Stewart, for six months because she did not have access to a phone.

“She’s got five kids she doesn’t get to see, so it’s kind of lonely for her,” he said.

Stewart said he planned to leave Southern California on Friday to attend the funeral of his great-grandfather, Pompie Randle, on Saturday in Aberdeen, Miss., and visit his mother nearby. The Trojans do not play this weekend.

Stewart recalled his great-grandfather, who died at 98, as “just being funny. Just joking around all the time. I’ve got a lot of comedians in my family that like to joke around, so I know where my personality came from.”

Andrew “Bull” Stewart, Lodrick’s father who is separated from his mother and lives in Seattle, said he informed his son immediately of his great-grandfather’s death because he regretted the way he handled the news of Lodrick’s grandmother’s death four years ago.

“He didn’t tell me right when it happened,” Lodrick said. “I found out a day later, the day of my state final game [in high school], right before I was about to go to the stadium.

“That was the hardest game I ever played in my life.”

Lodrick said he intended to visit his grandmother’s gravesite for the first time during his trip to Mississippi.

“I’m just going to get a lot of stuff off my chest when I go down there,” he said.

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Trojans junior guard Gabe Pruitt sat out the end of practice Tuesday after tweaking his right ankle, but he is expected to play tonight.... Asked whether he felt UCLA players respected the Trojans, USC junior swingman Nick Young said, “They’re a cocky program. They think they can beat everybody. We like to be underestimated.”

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ben.bolch@latimes.com