Kelli Tennant describes sexual assault allegations against former Lakers coach Luke Walton

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (FOX 11) - Former local sports reporter Kelli Tennant described the sexual assault allegations levied against former Lakers coach Luke Walton in a Tuesday afternoon press conference in Los Angeles alongside her attorneys.

Tennant said she waited five years to go public with the information hoping time would heal her pain but also out of fair.

"I was scared," Tennant said. "When someone assaults you and you think you're going to be raped, coming forward is a scary thing. And I have spent years now dealing with this, trying to forget about it, hoping that I could push it to the side and bury it, and hoping that time would heal. And that was not the case."

Tennant says Walton assaulted her in a hotel room at the Casa Del Mar in Santa Monica, where he was staying while working as an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors in 2014.

"He got on top of me and pinned me down to the bed and held my arms down with all of his weight while he kissed my neck, and my face, and chest," said Tennant. "And as I kept asking him to please stop and to get off, he laughed at me, and he continued to laugh at all of my pleas to get off and to stop. I thought he was going to rape me."

Walton's attorney, Mark Baute, issued a statement Monday denying the allegations.

"Luke Walton retained me to defend him against these baseless allegations," Baute said. "The accuser is an opportunist, not a victim and her claim is not credible. We intend to prove this in a courtroom."

CNS contributed to this story