SYDNEY, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- If first round crowd attendance figures are anything to go by, the 2018-19 season of Australia's National Basketball League (NBL) is shaping up to be the biggest yet.

A total of 48,820 fans watched NBL fixtures around the country over the weekend, making it the highest first round figures since 1995 and the third most attended round ever.

"Following record attendances last season we believe this will be our biggest season yet and invite everyone to come along and enjoy the world class basketball and entertainment on offer around Australia and New Zealand," NBL chief executive Jeremy Loeliger said in a statement on Sunday.

Fans weren't disappointed with the action. On Friday, Melbourne United overcame the Illawarra Hawks 123-122 in a nail-biter that went into four overtime periods. According to Loeliger, the match will go down as one of the "greatest ever played in NBL history."

"We also saw a record opening round crowd in Sydney of 10,761 to witness (former NBA star) Andrew Bogut's NBL debut, 12,583 fans turned out in Perth to see the Wildcats play Illawarra and 8,329 showed up to watch Melbourne play New Zealand."