We show that high-Q modes in a strongly deformed microcavity can be efficiently excited by free-space resonant pumping. We observed that the far-field pattern of cavity transmission is changed when a probe laser is resonant with a scar mode, which can be excited by free-space optical pumping. By measuring the difference between the pump-beam transmission in the nonresonant pumping and that in the resonant pumping cases, we show that the pump beam can be resonantly coupled to the cavity mode via refraction without evanescent coupling and that the pump-coupling efficiency for the scar mode is about 45%.