Jordan McLaughlin has school-record 16 assists in USC’s rout of Lafayette

Jordan McLaughlin went through two protective masks after suffering a broken nose last month.

The first was delivered overnight to USC’s sophomore point guard but did not fit his face.

The second was a custom-fitted but still affected his peripheral vision.

One game after he decided to lose the mask, it is clear that McLaughlin can see the court perhaps better than ever.

McLaughlin handed out a school-record 16 assists Wednesday night as USC routed Lafayette, 100-64, at the Galen Center to close out the nonconference portion of its schedule.

Elijah Stewart matched a career high with 27 points and fellow wing player Katin Reinhardt scored 26 as the Trojans improved their record to 11-2 and continued their best start in 13 seasons.

Both benefited from McLaughlin’s generosity.

“He played as well as I’ve seen him play in awhile,” Coach Andy Enfield said. “We’d like that to continue.”

So would McLaughlin.

The former Etiwanda High standout never had more than eight assists for the Trojans before breaking Brandon Granville’s record of 15 set in 1999.

His performance helped the Trojans score 100 points or more for the second time in three games, as did Stewart and Reinhardt each making six of nine three-point shots.

“We’re right where we want to be,” said McLaughlin, who scored 14 points and had only two turnovers.

McLaughlin had struggled after breaking his nose against Xavier on Nov. 27.

“The mask affected him,” Enfield said. “It affected the whole team.”

The difference in McLaughlin’s play was subtle.

“He was still finding people,” Stewart said. “You could tell he was stressing his neck more.”

Unencumbered, McLaughlin had 12 points and six assists in Monday’s victory over Southern Illinois Edwardsville.

On Wednesday, he took it to another level and broke the record that guard Julian Jacobs had flirted with before finishing with 13 assists in 101-82 victory over Cal Poly on Dec. 17.

Jacobs was sidelined Wednesday because of tendinitis in his left Achilles’ tendon, but he coaxed McLaughlin to keep passing and establish the record.

Stewart broke out of a four-game shooting slump, he said, by going “back to the drawing board” and working on his form.

He tied his career-best for three-pointers and also scored on a spectacular dunk in the first half off a lob pass from McLaughlin.

With 6-foot-10 freshman forward Bennie Boatwright sidelined because of a lower back injury, 6-11 freshman Chimezie Metu started for the first time. He scored 15 point and took eight rebounds.

The Trojans led, 45-37, at halftime and pulled away early in the second half to their sixth consecutive victory, making it look easy. Lafayette fell to 3-8. Now comes the hard part: The Pac-12 Conference schedule.

Last season, USC was 8-4 going into conference play. The Trojans finished 12-20.

The Trojans are off for about a week before playing five of their next seven games on the road, including the Jan. 1 conference opener at Washington State.

They have lost their last 10 Pac-12 road games and 20 of their last 21.

McLaughlin sounded confident that it would be different this season.

“Our experience,” he said, “will help us a lot.”

gary.klein@latimes.com

Twitter: @latimesklein