Best way to get an INT from SQL

Is there a better way to do this?

int i;
myreader SqlDataReader;
...
try
{
 ...
 if(myreader.Read())
 {
 i = myreader.GetInt16(0);
 }
 myreader.Close();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
 Response.Write(ex.ToString());
}
finally
{
 myreader = null;
}
return i;

If the query is just returning a single value (one row, one column) then it's slightly easier to use:

int i = 0;
Connection.Open();
try{
 i = (int)cm.ExecuteScalar();
}
catch (Exception ex){
 // etc
}
finally{
 Connection.Close();
}